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One area that people often forget about when it comes to possible health threats is agriculture. Just as the state Department of Health and Human Services created the Office of Public Health Preparedness and Response to address threats to human health, the N.C. Department Agriculture and Consumer Services (NCDA&CS) created the Emergency Programs Division to help protect the state's crops and livestock.
"Farmers in North Carolina manage and produce one of our most important resources – our food supply," Agriculture Commissioner Britt Cobb said. "They are the most important link in protecting our crops and livestock from the farm to the fork.”
Although bioterrorism is a new threat, farmers have had to contend with hazards such as drought, flooding and catastrophic disease outbreaks since man first domesticated animals and began putting seeds in the ground. With the addition of bioterrorism, farmers have had to adopt a multi-hazard approach designed to address a variety of threats that may strike.
"For agriculture, being prepared means that we must have a plan and that everyone involved with food production must be aware of the possible threats," Cobb said. "To be successful, we all must work together. Our department is collaborating with the livestock industry, farming organizations, the retail food industry, other government entities and the general public, to protect North Carolina’s food supply from both natural and terrorist threats."
In 2003, as part of its effort to help farmers protect their crops and livestock, the NCDA&CS Emergency Programs Division helped North Carolina 's counties develop animal response and mitigation plans. Once the counties were armed with their plans, the division assisted in exercises to identify strengths and weaknesses in the emergency response system.
“As a result of the exercises, the department took specific actions and now offers detailed security measures that farms and agribusinesses can use to help protect themselves ,” Dr. Marty Zaluski, NCDA&CS veterinary field response specialist, said. (See "What Farmers Can Do" below.)
The department also established a Multi-Hazard Task Force to address response to threats. The group is composed of members from the department's various divisions and involves other state agencies, including the State Bureau of Investigation, the Division of Emergency Management, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the federal Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.
"One of the most important results of our efforts so far is the creation of a Web-based 'Terrorism Threat Vulnerability Self-Assessment' tool," Zaluski said. "We created this tool to help agribusinesses determine whether their facilities are safe from acts of terrorism. We consider an agribusiness to be anything associated with the distribution and marketing of agricultural goods after they leave the farm."
The “Terrorism Threat Vulnerability Self-Assessment Tool” can be accessed on the Internet at http://www.ncagr.com/BioTerror_Assesment.htm or by contacting the N.C. Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services at 919-807-4300.
In addition to these accomplishments, the Emergency Programs Division is involved in a number of ongoing efforts designed to help North Carolina residents and farmers in many different ways, Zaluski said. The following is a partial list of their programs and services.
Web-Based System for Reporting Symptoms and Diseases
The division has developed and tested a Web-based system for veterinarians to report animal diseases. This system allows veterinarians to report symptoms as well as diseases. The reporting system is also expanding to identify and meet the needs of the swine, poultry, and dairy and beef cattle industries. The goal of this effort is to enhance the department's ability to detect and identify potentially devastating diseases in their early stages so that staff can get a jump on response efforts.
North Carolina Agricultural Notification and Alert System
The division is also developing the N.C. Agricultural Notification and Alert System, which will allow the department to quickly notify the agricultural community about critical information and threats. This system uses e-mail and fax messages to notify veterinarians. Future plans are to enroll animal industry leaders and others with a vested interest in animal health and other agricultural subjects. Messages include alerts, surveillance reports and notices of important events.
Food Safety and Security Project
The Food Safety and Security work group, composed of staff from the Division of Public Health and the NCDA&CS, has developed a food safety and security project to identify threats and reduce the risk to the state's food supply. This comprehensive project involves many state agencies and many facets of private industry in all sectors of food production and distribution. The work group currently is exploring sources of funding to implement the project.
Emergency Programs Crisis Response Center
In 2002, the NCDA&CS established a Crisis Response Center to be activated during disease outbreaks, natural disasters and other emergencies. In addition to acting as a component of the State Emergency Response Team, the center’s mission is to coordinate an emergency response specifically focusing on the state's agricultural community.
What Farmers Can Do
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