Call for human factors to be considered in animal disease outbreaks

Mycotoxins are gaining increasing importance due to their deleterious effects on human and animal health. Chronic health risks are particularly prevalent in India where the diets of the people are highly prone to mycotoxins due to poor harvesting practices, improper storage and transport coupled with high temperature and moisture. This paper reviews disease outbreaks of mycotoxicoses other than aflatoxins in India due to ingestion of mycotoxincontaminated food. Ergotism is one of the earliest known outbreaks of mycotoxins reported in rural areas of western India associated with pearl millet grain. Trichothecenes have been involved in an acute human mycotoxicosis known as alimentary toxic aleukia in India during 1987 and were attributed to the consumption of mouldy wheat. Deoxynivalenol was implicated in an outbreak of emetic syndrome in Kashmir State. An outbreak of acute foodborne disease caused by fumonisin was reported in south India during 1995 affecting 1,424 people due to contaminated sorghum and maize. Rhizopus toxicosis was reported from Maharashtra State and caused the death of three people. These outbreaks continue to be a significant health problem of people in India, because their poor purchasing power compels them to consume contaminated food.

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(A189) The U.S. National Veterinary Stockpile: Science-Based Logistics Improving Animal Disease Response

Prehospital and Disaster Medicine ◽

10.1017/s1049023x11001853 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 26 (S1) ◽

pp. s54-s54

Author(s):

L.M. Myers

Keyword(s):

Homeland Security ◽

Business Processes ◽

Animal Health ◽

Disease Outbreaks ◽

Federal State ◽

Animal Disease ◽

Disease Response ◽

Inspection Service ◽

The Right ◽

The U.S

BackgroundAgriculture emergency responders always will require equipment and supplies. A rapid and effective logistical response depends upon having the right item in the right quantity at the right time at the right place for the right price in the right condition to the right responder. Established in 2004 by U.S. Homeland Security Presidential Directive 9, the National Veterinary Stockpile (NVS) within the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, Veterinary Services is the nation's repository of critical veterinary supplies, equipment, vaccines, and services appropriate to respond to the most damaging animal diseases affecting human health and the economy. An overview of the NVS program, its capabilities, training and exercise strategy, and outreach to stakeholders will be presented.The NVS ProgramThe goals of the NVS program are to deploy countermeasures against the 17 most damaging animal disease threats within 24 hours, and to help states/tribes/territories plan, train, and exercise the receipt, processing, and distribution of NVS countermeasures. To meet these goals, the NVS program heavily relies upon science-based logistics to identify animal vaccines and other countermeasures to respond, and sound business processes to purchase, hold, maintain, and deploy the countermeasures. Significant resources also are dedicated to the NVS outreach activities, which interface directly with federal/state/tribe/territory animal health stakeholders. NVS team members work hand-in-hand with these leaders to help develop written NVS-specific plans for their jurisdictions, provide logistics training, and sponsor discussion-based and operations-based exercises in accordance with the Homeland Security Exercise and Evaluation Program.ConclusionThe USDA NVS exists to provide states/tribes/territories the countermeasures they need to respond to catastrophic animal disease outbreaks created by either terrorists or nature. As logistical experts, the NVS team develops plans for logistical emergency response, manages their supply chain of countermeasures, and helps stakeholders improve logistical response capabilities.

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A methodology to assess indirect economic impacts of animal disease outbreaks

10.22541/au.163979394.44397040/v1 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Giulia Savioli ◽

Bouda Vosough Ahmadi ◽

Violeta Muñoz ◽

Manon Schuppers

Keyword(s):

Disease Control ◽

Wild Boar ◽

Quantitative Data ◽

Control Measure ◽

Disease Outbreaks ◽

Indirect Costs ◽

Animal Disease ◽

Domestic Pig ◽

Qualitative And Quantitative ◽

Hypothetical Scenario

Indirect costs of animal disease outbreaks often significantly exceed the direct costs. Despite their importance, indirect costs remain poorly characterised due to their complexity. In this study, we developed a framework to assess the indirect costs of a hypothetical African Swine Fever outbreak in Switzerland. We collected data through international and national stakeholder interviews, analysis of national disease control regulations and industry data. We developed a framework to capture the resulting qualitative and quantitative data, categorise the impacts of these regulations, and rank the impacts in order of importance. We then developed a spreadsheet model to calculate the indirect costs of one category of control measure for an individual group of stakeholders. We developed a decision tree model to guide the most economically favourable implementation plan for a given control measure category, under different outbreak scenarios. Our results suggest that the most important measure/impact categories were ‘Transport logistics’, ‘Consumer demand’, ‘Prevention of wild boar and domestic pig contact’ and ‘Slaughter logistics’. In our hypothetical scenario, the greatest costs associated with ‘Prevention of wild boar and domestic pig contact’ were due to assumed partial or total depopulation of pig farms in order to reduce herd size to comply with the simulated control regulations. The model also provides suggestions on the most economically favourable strategy to reduce contact between wild boar and domestic pigs in control areas depending on the duration of the outbreak. Our approach provides a new framework to integrate qualitative and quantitative data to guide disease control strategy. This method could be useful in other countries and for other diseases, including in data- and resource-poor settings, or areas with limited experience of animal disease outbreaks.

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