DATE: January 04, 2008

CONTACT: Dr. Howard van Dijk, (803) 865-1216
hdijk@clemson.edu

WRITER: Tom Lollis, (803) 284-3343, ext 241
tlollis@clemson.edu

Clemson to host EDEN animal agrosecurity conference

CLEMSON – How do you keep a foreign animal disease from becoming a disaster for the nation’s food supply?

There will be 135 extension service personnel, state and federal veterinarians and representatives from other response agencies in 12 Southern states at Clemson University Jan 8-10 working to become better prepared to handle such an event.

This will be the first of three regional conferences scheduled for the continental United States in 2008 by the Extension Disaster Education Network (EDEN), according to Howard van Dijk, animal scientist and emergency preparedness coordinator for the Clemson Extension Service.

Clemson University and North Carolina State University are co-hosting the EDEN conference.

“We hope that after these three days the participants will have a better understanding of the roles they play before, during and after an agrosecurity event, and how important they are in protecting and securing our food and agricultural infrastructure,” said van Dijk.

“One of our goals will be to build better lines of communication across agency lines so that we can work as a team, even across state lines, in case we have to control a disease outbreak,” he said.

The conference begins with registration from 9 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. Jan. 8 at the Madren Conference Center on the Clemson University campus.

One of the open day’s highlights will be Steve Van Wie, a retired veterinarian from Wisconsin who was sent to the United Kingdom in 2001 to help contain an outbreak of foot and mouth disease. While there he witnessed the horrors of the response to the disease.

Livestock were killed and left dead in barns or in outside barnyards for two or three weeks until disposal crews could reach them. Barns and outbuildings were burned to the ground to kill the virus. Six and a half million animals were killed and more than 80 farmers committed suicide.

Representatives from each sector involved – such as extension, state and federal veterinarians, state emergency management, public health, law enforcement and commodity groups – will explain the roles they will have during an emergency.

Following a 7 p.m. dinner, the group will hear keynote speaker Jim Davis, a veterinarian from Alabama, discuss innovations in agrosecurity.

The second day will concentrate on the meat and potatoes of a coordinated response to disease outbreak, highlighted by an afternoon role-playing session to show agency responses to a simulated outbreak.

The wrap-up session will include an evaluation of the walk-through exercise, a presentation on crisis communication and a look at upcoming training and team development.

END