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9-4-2003

The nation’s food supply is at risk and now is the time to take the steps needed to protect it. That is the finding of a USDA Advisory Panel chaired by West Virginia Agriculture Commissioner Gus R. Douglass.

The findings by the USDA Secretary’s Advisory Committee on Foreign Animal and Poultry Diseases were included in a report to USDA Secretary Anne Veneman.

In the report, the Committee stated it is “most concerned that the U.S. is not adequately prepared at this time to respond effectively to the potential introduction of a highly infectious foreign animal disease or any other type of biological agent that might disrupt the food supply chain and have of significant economic impacts to many other segments of the U.S. economy.”

Among the steps recommended by the Committee are:

• Establish new USDA liaison positions within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to ensure coordination and communication;
  
• Develop secure communication links between USDA, DHS and state agencies;
  
• Upgrade the USDA Smuggling Interdiction and Trade Compliance group of inspectors;
  
• Establish an Emergency Support Function for agriculture and food to be included in the National Incidence Response Plan;
  
• Continue development of the National Animal Health Laboratory Network;
  
• Develop an information and identification system for animals which is essential in predicting transmission and providing for tracing animal origins; and,
  
• Improve animal vaccine strategies.

Commissioner Douglass said efforts to improve protection of plant and animal health and the food supply at the local and state levels must also be increased.

“This is the primary responsibility of the Department of Agriculture,” Commissioner Douglass said. “We need to improve our labs, get better coordination with other state and local agencies and ultimately get more people into the field. The threats of terrorism and disease are very real and will not go away.”

Commissioner Douglass said that funding for Homeland Security efforts is now making its way to the states, but that most of it is going to police, fire and other emergency response organizations. Little of it, he said, is going to biosecurity and food safety.

“It was recently announced that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services provided nearly $1.4 billion nationally,” Commissioner Douglass said. “The money will be used to upgrade infectious disease surveillance and investigation systems, enhance the health care system’s readiness to handle mass casualty events, and improve communication between hospitals and public health departments.”

“These are excellent steps in the effort to protect human health,” Commissioner Douglass said. “But we have to begin thinking about ways to stop these events before they can happen – and one way is to protect our food supply.”

For more information, contact Buddy Davidson in the WVDA’s Communications Division at 304/558-3708 or bdavidson@ag.state.wv.us.

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