Category Archives: News Worthy Mentionables
Milk Truck Cleaning and Disinfection Drill in Orwell, VT
Orwell, VT – On Saturday, March 31st, UVM Extension, the Addison County Decontamination Team, Orwell Fire Department and Orwell Rescue participated in an on-farm milk truck cleaning and disinfection drill. The drill allowed local responders to meet their training goals … Continue reading
Time for an Insurance Check Up
Think your insurance carrier covers foot-and-mouth disease? Think again! When is the last time you reviewed your farm insurance coverage really closely? Reading your policy at bedtime may take care of insomnia, but will it ensure your policy meets your … Continue reading
Your Role in Preparation? Being Part of the Conversation
The AFRI biosecurity project held its first Public Issue Forum in Vergennes on September 14. The goals of the forum were to provide background on the impact a highly contagious animal disease emergency (for instance, foot-and-mouth disease) could have on … Continue reading
Texting O K
What should you do if you want to know your family is safe after a weather, terror, or other emergency event? Text first. Talk second. The Safe America Foundation has launched a “text first/talk second” campaign coinciding with the anniversary … Continue reading
ReadyAG
ReadyAG is multi-state collaborative project has utilized the expertise of Cooperative Extension professionals from multiple land grant universities in development of a set of disaster planning and continuity of operations worksheets for each of the major agriculture commodities. There are … Continue reading
NACAA Update on NBAF
I attended the Annual Meeting and Professional Improvement Conference of the National Association of County Agricultural Agents (that’s NACAA AM/PIC, for short) in Overland Park, KS, in August. Fortunately the temps did not soar into the 100s during our visit. … Continue reading
USDA APHIS Proposed Animal Disease Traceability Rule
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) issued a proposed rule on August 11 to establish general regulations for improving the traceability of U.S. livestock moving interstate if an animal disease event takes place. Under … Continue reading
Across the Fence episode: Preparing Our Communities for an Agricultural Emergency
On August 9, 2011 UVM Extension Family & Youth Development Specialist Dr. Ellen Rowe and I appeared on WCAX’s daily program Across the Fence to promote our AFRI Biosecurity project’s upcoming Public Policy Forum on September 14, 2011 at the … Continue reading
Bury our way out of foot-and-mouth disease? Think again.
To illustrate the importance of considering alternatives to burial as a carcass management option, Lori Miller of USDA APHIS, has made it easy to visualize some mind boggling statistics. Policy-makers and those qualified as incident commanders would do well to … Continue reading
Recent foot-and-mouth disease outbreaks deserve a closer look
Taiwan 1997 Taiwan was free of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) from 1929 until 1997. An outbreak in 1997 spread rapidly among swine herds resulting in the destruction of 3.8 million pigs and loss of export markets. Taiwan now produces 6 million … Continue reading
