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WVDA, DHHR SPONSOR TRAINING ON HIGH-PATHOGENICITY AVIAN INFLUENZA
The West Virginia Department of Agriculture (WVDA) and the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources (DHHR) sponsored worker safety training for emergency responders in case of an outbreak of high-pathogenicity avian influenza (HPAI). Participants included WVDA personnel, as well as law enforcement, healthcare workers and representatives of local health departments.
The H5N1 strain of HPAI is responsible for human infections and deaths in Asia and elsewhere, spurring fears of a possible human pandemic. No cases of HPAI have been detected recently in the United States and no one in this country has contracted avian influenza.
“We have so far been successful in preventing ‘high-path’ AI in this country, and the strains circulating overseas have not mutated into viruses that can easily be spread among humans,” said Commissioner Douglass. “However, if I’ve learned anything from my experience in this office, it is that we cannot become complacent. We must constantly be looking over the horizon for the next threat to the food supply and human health.”
Commissioner Douglass noted that the 9/11 attacks – coupled with significant international disease outbreaks – opened a new chapter in American agriculture.
“These new threats have forced us to consider the likelihood of catastrophic agricultural events, and in the past seven or eight years, it has been my primary mission to ensure the West Virginia Department of Agriculture has the personnel, training and equipment to respond to a threat to our state’s food supply,” he said.
WVDA is recognized as a leader in training staff in the White House-mandated National Incident Management System (NIMS), a standardized command structure that can overarch numerous agencies in the event of a civil emergency.
The Department has also greatly improved its laboratory and emergency response facilities with the expansion of the regional laboratory in Moorefield, and the addition of emergency response trucks and trailers and a half-million dollar mobile laboratory, purchased with federal Homeland Security grants
The West Virginia Department of Agriculture protects plant, animal and human health through a variety of scientific, regulatory and consumer protection programs, as mandated by state law. The Commissioner of Agriculture is one of six statewide elected officials in West Virginia. Currently, Commissioner Gus R. Douglass is the longest-serving agriculture commissioner in the nation. For more information, visit www.wvagriculture.org.
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