Foreign animal disease (FAD) planning has been a priority for Minnesota since the early 2000s. The 2015 highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) outbreak incident gave state leaders a baseline for what a full-scale animal disease response would look like. This started a series of preparedness steps both internally and with swine stakeholders, said Lucia Hunt, Director, Office of Emergency Preparedness and Response, Minnesota Department of Agriculture.
In 2018, a major outbreak of African swine fever (ASF) in Asia prompted a closer look at how the swine industry could prepare for and maintain resilience throughout a disease event. The 2020 Covid supply chain disruption of swine allowed for the exercise of mass carcass disposal, which motivated planners to face the threat in more concrete terms, Hunt said during the 2024 American Association of Swine Veterinarians conference.
Response partners
Government regulators alone cannot be the response entity without veterinarians, company operations managers, processors and researchers. For HPAI, a Poultry Emergency Disease Management Committee was formed, which Minnesota duplicated for swine in 2019 to explore the various aspects of an in-depth response, Hunt said.
Metrics
USDA Veterinary Services has identified 23 critical activities for a successful response that guides their preparation goals. Some of these competencies require veterinary expertise, while other competencies rely on the experience of emergency managers. Together, they build a well-rounded response, she noted.
Critical incident activities are:
- Etiology and ecology
- Case definitions
- Surveillance
- Diagnostics
- Epidemiological investigation and tracing
- Information management
- Communication
- Health and safety and personal protective equipment
- Biosecurity
- Quarantine and movement control
- Continuity of business
- Regionalization for international trade
- Mass depopulation and euthanasia
- Disposal
- Cleaning and disinfection
- Vaccination
- National veterinary stockpile
- Wildlife management and vector control
- Animal welfare
- Modeling and assessment tool
- Appraisal and compensation
- Finance
- National response framework and national incident management system
Hunt pointed out that although not all these categories have clear analogs, lessons learned in these categories from the HPAI incidents have been translated to a potential ASF incident.
For example, poultry depopulation events where the case manager, site manager, contractor crews, farm workers and companies all had different ideas of how to proceed efficiently drove the creation of procedures of on-site hierarchy and communication, she explained.
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