Animal docs fill homeland security slots

Eyes, ears and hooves on the ground
As vital as a trained veterinary community is to the health and protection of the nation’s food supply, any kind of outbreak would quickly overwhelm government-employed veterinarians, Vannieuwenhoven said. 

Looking ahead to such a possibility, Vannieuwenhoven is helping coordinate the Wisconsin Veterinary Corps. The corps is a kind of National Guard for veterinarians, an all-volunteer group “of veterinarians, veterinary technicians and veterinary students who would be interested in being temporary state, federal or even potentially voluntary employees in an outbreak situation,” Vannieuwenhoven said.  Other states have instituted similar veterinary corps as well.

The American Veterinary Medical Association is heading up a nationwide effort to form veterinary medical assistance teams in different regions of the country. The mission of these teams is “to assist the local veterinary community with the care of animals and to provide veterinary oversight and advice concerning animal-related issues and public health during a disaster or following a request from an appropriate agency,” the association's Web site says.

Wisconsin state veterinarians also help register all livestock and premises where livestock are kept, including backyard chicken coops, as a part a statewide effort that tracks closely the goals of the National Animal Identification System. The NAIS, run out of the Agriculture Department in cooperation with industry and state agriculture agencies, is intended to provide a 48-hour snapshot of the movements of any diseased or exposed animal. In the event of any kind of out break, rapid disease containment is vital, health officials said.

Animal tracking
NAIS is a three-phase program and its database continues to grow as more and more animal producers opt into the system. The database will track animals from birth to market.

"We will establish an electronic trail," said Dee Whittier, extension specialist with the Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine. "When an animal goes through a checkpoint, such as a sales site or feedlot, it will be recorded,” Whittier said, using a type of device such as a radio-frequency identification tags on an animal’s ear. Whittier notes that retinal scanning of cows also has been discussed because each cow’s retina is unique. 

Veterinary services are also woven into the fabric of homeland security in subtler ways.  For example, the high number of bomb-sniffing dog teams used during the Democratic and Republican conventions last year required veterinarians to be on site to ensure the dogs were being properly cared for.

In addition, veterinarians are needed during a disaster, such as a chemical or hazardous material spill, or any kind of bio-terrorism outbreak that requires decontamination procedures.

“People aren’t going to leave their pets behind,” says Vannieuwenhoven, “and veterinarians will be needed to handle the decontamination of those pets,” he said.  “Now, I don’t know if your definition of ‘homeland security’ includes such things, but mine does.”

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