Foreign Animal Disease Outbreaks

2018 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 341-354
Author(s):  
Danelle A. Bickett-Weddle ◽  
Michael W. Sanderson ◽  
Elizabeth J. Parker
Keyword(s):  
Disease Outbreaks ◽  
Animal Disease ◽  
Foreign Animal Disease

Preparing for a Foreign Animal Disease Outbreak Using a Novel Tabletop Exercise

2018 ◽  
Vol 33 (6) ◽  
pp. 640-646
Author(s):  
Eric J. Linskens ◽  
Abby E. Neu ◽  
Emily J. Walz ◽  
Kaitlyn M. St. Charles ◽  
Marie R. Culhane ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Avian Influenza ◽  
Emergency Preparedness ◽  
Food System ◽  
Animal Health ◽  
The United States ◽  
Disease Outbreak ◽  
Animal Disease ◽  
Publication Type ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Foreign Animal Disease

AbstractIntroductionForeign animal disease (FAD) outbreaks can have devastating impacts, but they occur infrequently in any specific sector anywhere in the United States (US). Training to proactively discuss implementation of control and prevention strategies are beneficial in that they provide stakeholders with the practical information and educational experience they will need to respond effectively to an FAD. Such proactive approaches are the mission of the Secure Food System (SFS; University of Minnesota; St. Paul, Minnesota USA).MethodsThe SFS exercises were designed as educational activities based on avian influenza (AI) outbreaks in commercial poultry scenarios. These scenarios were created by subject matter experts and were based on epidemiology reports, risk pathway analyses, local industry practices, and site-specific circumstances. Target audiences of an exercise were the groups involved in FAD control: animal agriculture industry members; animal health regulators; and diagnosticians. Groups of industry participants seated together at tables represented fictional poultry premises and were guided by a moderator to respond to an on-farm situation within a simulated outbreak. The impact of SFS exercises was evaluated through interviews with randomized industry participants and selected table moderators. Descriptive statistics and qualitative analyses were performed on interview feedback.ResultsEleven SFS exercises occurred from December 2016 through October 2017 in multiple regions of the US. Exercises were conducted as company-wide, state-wide, or regional trainings. Nine were based on highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) outbreaks and two focused on outbreaks of co-circulating HPAI and low pathogenicity avian influenza (LPAI). Poultry industry participants interviewed generally found attending an SFS exercise to be useful. The most commonly identified benefits of participation were its value to people without prior outbreak experience and knowledge gained about Continuity of Business (COB)-permitted movement. After completing an exercise, most participants evaluated their preparedness to respond to an outbreak as somewhat to very ready, and more than one-half reported their respective company or farms had discussions or changed actions due to participation.Conclusion:Evaluation feedback suggests the SFS exercises were an effective training method to supplement preparedness efforts for an AI outbreak. The concept of using multi-faceted scenarios and multiple education strategies during a tabletop exercise may be translatable to other emergency preparedness needs.LinskensEJ, NeuAE, WalzEJ, St. CharlesKM, CulhaneMR, SsematimbaA, GoldsmithTJ, HalvorsonDA, CardonaCJ. Preparing for a foreign animal disease outbreak using a novel tabletop exercise. Prehosp Disaster Med. 2018;33(6):640–646.

Application of DIVA vaccines and their companion diagnostic tests to foreign animal disease eradication

2004 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 257-262 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Pasick
Keyword(s):  
Avian Influenza ◽  
Diagnostic Tests ◽  
Foot And Mouth Disease ◽  
Classical Swine Fever ◽  
Mouth Disease ◽  
Animal Disease ◽  
Infectious Individual ◽  
Companion Diagnostic ◽  
Foot And Mouth ◽  
Foreign Animal Disease

AbstractThe risk of foreign animal disease introduction continues to exist despite Canada's strict regulations concerning the importation of animals and animal products. Given the rapidity with which these diseases can spread, especially in areas with dense livestock populations, eradication efforts which rely solely on quarantine and stamping-out measures can present a formidable undertaking. This, combined with growing economic and ethical considerations, has led to renewed interest in the use of vaccination as a tool in controlling foreign animal disease outbreaks. Vaccination has effects at the individual and population levels. Efficacious vaccines reduce or prevent clinical signs without necessarily preventing virus replication. They may also increase the dose of virus needed to establish an infection and/or reduce the level and duration of virus shedding following infection. Vaccine effectiveness within a population is a function of its ability to reduce virus transmission. Transmission is best described by the reproductive ratio, R, which is defined as the average number of new infections caused by one infectious individual. By helping to reduce the R-value below 1, vaccination can be an effective adjunct in abbreviating an outbreak. Nevertheless, vaccination can also complicate serological surveillance activities that follow eradication, if the antibody response induced by vaccination is indistinguishable from that which follows infection. This disadvantage can be overcome by the use of DIVA vaccines and their companion diagnostic tests. The term DIVA (differentiating infected from vaccinated individuals) was coined in 1999 by J. T. van Oirschot of the Central Veterinary Institute, in the Netherlands. It is now generally used as an acronym for ‘differentiating infected from vaccinated animals’. The term was originally applied to the use of marker vaccines, which are based on deletion mutants of wild-type microbes, in conjunction with a differentiating diagnostic test. The DIVA strategy has been extended to include subunit and killed whole-virus vaccines. This system makes possible the mass vaccination of a susceptible animal population without compromising the serological identification of convalescent individuals. The DIVA approach has been applied successfully to pseudorabies and avian influenza eradication, and has been proposed for use in foot-and-mouth disease and classical swine fever eradication campaigns. This paper will survey current vaccine technology, the host immune response, and companion diagnostic tests that are available for pseudorabies, foot-and-mouth disease, classical swine fever and avian influenza.

Human and animal disease outbreaks in India due to mycotoxins other than aflatoxins

2009 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-30 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Raghavender ◽  
B. Reddy
Keyword(s):  
Health Risks ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
South India ◽  
Animal Health ◽  
Disease Outbreaks ◽  
Western India ◽  
Animal Disease ◽  
The People ◽  
Contaminated Food ◽  
Significant Health

Mycotoxins are gaining increasing importance due to their deleterious effects on human and animal health. Chronic health risks are particularly prevalent in India where the diets of the people are highly prone to mycotoxins due to poor harvesting practices, improper storage and transport coupled with high temperature and moisture. This paper reviews disease outbreaks of mycotoxicoses other than aflatoxins in India due to ingestion of mycotoxincontaminated food. Ergotism is one of the earliest known outbreaks of mycotoxins reported in rural areas of western India associated with pearl millet grain. Trichothecenes have been involved in an acute human mycotoxicosis known as alimentary toxic aleukia in India during 1987 and were attributed to the consumption of mouldy wheat. Deoxynivalenol was implicated in an outbreak of emetic syndrome in Kashmir State. An outbreak of acute foodborne disease caused by fumonisin was reported in south India during 1995 affecting 1,424 people due to contaminated sorghum and maize. Rhizopus toxicosis was reported from Maharashtra State and caused the death of three people. These outbreaks continue to be a significant health problem of people in India, because their poor purchasing power compels them to consume contaminated food.

scholarly journals Using Simulated Annealing to Improve the Information Dissemination Network Structure of a Foreign Animal Disease Outbreak Response

2018 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
James D. Pleuss ◽  
Jessica L. Heier Stamm ◽  
Jason D. Ellis
Keyword(s):  
Communication Network ◽  
Simulated Annealing ◽  
Emergency Response ◽  
Network Structure ◽  
Crisis Communication ◽  
Information Dissemination ◽  
Data Extraction ◽  
Animal Disease ◽  
Outbreak Response ◽  
Foreign Animal Disease

AbstractCommunication is an integral part of emergency response, and improving the information dissemination network for crisis communication can save time, resources, and lives. In a foreign animal disease (FAD) outbreak, timeliness of detection and response are critical. An outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease, a particularly significant FAD, could cripple the agriculture economy. This research uses communication data from a FAD response exercise in Kansas to develop a reliable crisis communication network model, contributing a general method for creating an information dissemination network from empirical communication data. We then introduce a simulated annealing heuristic that identifies an alternative network structure that minimizes the time for information to reach all response participants. The resultant network structure reduces overall information transmission time by almost 90% and reveals actionable observations for improving FAD response communication. We find that not only can a crisis communication network be improved significantly, but also that the quantitative results support qualitative observations from early in the data extraction process. This paper adds original methods to the literature and opens the door for future quantitative work in the area of crisis communication and emergency response.

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