October 28, 2015
National Agricultural Biosecurity Center staff present Livestock Emergency Response Plan toolkit at U.S. Animal Health Association
Ken Burton and Craig Beardsley of the National Agricultural Biosecurity Center, or NABC, presented the Livestock Emergency Response Plan toolkit to the Committee on Animal Emergency Management at the United States Animal Health Association annual meeting Oct. 22-28 in Providence, Rhode Island. The center developed the toolkit for the Department of Homeland Security Office of Health Affairs/Food, Agriculture, and Veterinary Defense Division.
The Livestock Emergency Response Plan, or LERP, toolkit is designed to assist state, tribal, and territorial government entities in developing an Emergency Operations Plan for responding to a livestock-related emergency such as an infectious or highly contagious foreign or emerging animal disease affecting poultry, exotic, and domestic livestock. The toolkit consists of five components: the template, Supplemental Guide, Participant’s Guide, Facilitator's Guide and a PowerPoint presentation. These components were compiled following a review of existing plans, documents and templates addressing livestock and foreign or emerging animal disease response.
The United States Animal Health Association, or USAHA, is a science-based nonprofit organization with more than 1,000 members, including state and federal animal health officials, national allied organizations, regional representatives and individuals. The association works with governmental entities, universities, veterinarians, livestock producers, researchers, livestock associations, foreign governments and other organizations to control and eliminate livestock diseases in the U.S. The October meeting was a joint gathering of the association and the American Association of Veterinary Laboratory Diagnosticians and was attended by approximately 1,200 people.