College hosts agriculture terror workshop

Farm animals seen as potential targets

By FRITZ MAYER

LOCH SHELDRAKE, NY — Agricultural terrorism might seem like a pretty remote possibility in our region of the world, but after listening to Ron Snyder for a few minutes, one quickly becomes convinced that it’s not as far fetched as it sounds. Snyder, the program director for the Ag Terror Preparedness Center, was at Sullivan County Community College (SCCC) on December 1 to teach a daylong course on ag terror to about 20 professionals who toil in the fields of farming, law enforcement and medical care.

Snyder’s workshop dealt with the possibility of an infection emergency in animal populations. Speaking with the energy of a man on a mission, Snyder told the group, “In 2001, an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) in England resulted in catastrophic economic losses exceeding $15 billion.” The illness does not infect humans, but six million animals were slaughtered as a result of the outbreak.

There are lots of cows, pigs, sheep and goats in the Upper Delaware Valley, and all of them are susceptible to FMD should they be exposed to it through either intentional or accidental means; the resulting losses could indeed be catastrophic for individual farmers. FMD can also infect deer, so an outbreak could be very damaging to a number of segments of the economy.

FMD is endemic in parts of Asia, Europe, Africa and South America; the United States and Canada have been free of the disease for decades. According to cattlenetwork.org, the last outbreak of FMD was in 1929. Both Snyder and his instructing partner, Jane Colacecchi, asked this reporter not to explain how the disease might be imported from one country to this one so as not to spread such information to any bad guys, but suffice it to say it would not necessarily be a very complicated operation.

If there were an outbreak of FMD, it would require responses from many professionals to deal with issues such as setting up quarantines to separate infected animals, or those that might be infected, from healthy ones. The possible slaughter of large numbers of farm animals would be another major concern, as well as the disposal of the carcasses.

The procedures outlined can be used in a case of intentional infection of animals and accidental infection or contamination.

Dr. Bruce Getzan, SCCC Dean of Workforce Development, who was instrumental in bringing the course to the county, said there was an incident in the ’90s when a farmhand accidentally mixed a bag of insecticide into feed for cows. The pesticide made its way into the milk supply in seven Midwestern states. Any similar situation could be handled by the methods put forward in the workshop.

The AgTerror Preparedness Center, located at Kirkwood Community College in Cedar Rapids, IA, was created in 2004 with a grant from the Department of Homeland Security. Its goal is to train approximately 300,000 first responders across the country about how to respond to an animal disease outbreak.