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The U.S. pork industry produces $20 billion of meat annually, according to recent estimates from the U.S. Department of Commerce. If African swine fever made its way to the U.S., the results could be devastating.
To prepare the United States for a domestic outbreak of African swine fever, the U.S Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) and USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) recently conducted a tabletop exercise centered on laboratory response preparedness to see how different government and scientific entities collaborated to solve the major national problem of ASF.
The exercise simulated multiagency response efforts for the first 60 days of an African swine fever outbreak in multiple states. This emergency response exercise consisted of three modules: Initial Outbreak (days 1-3), Surge Response (days 4-24), and Ongoing Response (days 25-60). Each module began with a multimedia summary of key events from that time period, and then the participants reviewed the situation and discussed the appropriate response tactics. The participants practiced notification and communication strategies, deploying and recalling surge support staff, exploiting resource capabilities, processing samples, and prioritizing their efforts.
S&T and USDA wanted to observe and assess how lab communications performed during animal disease outbreaks and determine the efficacy of diagnostic strategies and surge response procedures to such incidents.
November 12, 2019/ DHS/ United States.
https://www.dhs.gov/
