Biosecurity: Gov’t takes steps to prevent agro-terrorism
Airport security and military defense are usually waht comes to mind when someone is asked about precautions being taken to protect the United States from terrorism.
Leisha Johnson, an undeclared freshman, said her first thoughts about terrorism are about airplanes and airport security.
“They’re more top secret about things,” Kristin Merrell, a freshman majoring in psychology, said of the U.S. government and terrorism. “They don’t let out information.”
However, in the war against terrorism there is a protection strategy that many people have never considered. It involves the watch of feed locks, the screening of visitors and the careful inspection of farms.
According to the National Biosecurity Resource Center for Animal Health Emergencies (www.biosecuritycenter.org/nbrctoc.htm), the new protection strategy is called biosecurity.
Biosecurity has grown beyond the usual precautionary measures of cleaning and disinfecting because of the rise of a new fear from terrorists, the purposeful introduction of harmful animal and plant disease, said Clell Bagley, Extension veterinarian specialist at Utah State University. This threat is known as agro-terrorism and is more than a reaction to the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
He said the potential for terrorists to attack agricultural areas is real and officials have discovered plans in the works for such attacks. The danger lies within the terrorists’ abilities to contaminate foods through the importation of foreign disease and bacteria, he said. They could harm a great number of people, both physically and financially, by contaminating farms and distribution centers and destroying crops.
Bagley said the threat has become a real issue for farmers, especially dairy and beef, which, unlike poultry and swine, do not have the confined biosecurity access due to their open ranges.
Officials are seeking to educate farmers and urging them to use precautions, Bagley said.
However, it is not only terrorists who pose a threat. Travelers can unknowingly bring back foreign bacteria and spread them, Bagley said. The outbreak of foot and mouth disease devastated the beef industry and although beef producers have thus far avoided the disease, the introduction of foot and mouth disease, whether on purpose or by accident, could greatly harm agricultural areas where beef is an important part of the economy.
Dr. Bagley said the main prevention for accidental infection is awareness.
“We need to educate people of the different regulations, like waiting five days after returning home from any foreign country before visiting farms,” he said.
He also said those who are living on or near farms or have recently returned from foreign countries should use caution.
-kirstenn@cc.usu.edu