Albert

Posted on July 9, 2010 by jmsmith

Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted. – Albert Einstein

The UVM Extension reporting system, recently renamed the Logic Model Planning and Reporting System (lumpers?), is affectionately known as Albert—a reference to the above quote by Albert Einstein.  Today is the deadline for reporting Extension activities for the past 12 months and providing documentation of program “impact.”

No, you don’t have to duck.

The “impact” we are interested in is whether our programs have made a difference in people’s lives.  UVM Extension is out “Cultivating Healthy Communities” by helping individuals and communities put research-based knowledge to work.  Over 140 UVM Extension faculty and staff are at work on an array of programs from 4-H youth programs to programs relevant to agriculture, environment and natural resources, community engagement, business development and management, wellness, gardening, and a lot more besides.  A visit to the UVM Extension site will give you a glimpse of these programs and provide you with links to additional resources provided through the national eXtension system.

Tell us how you have benefited from UVM Extension.

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Exercising Your Mind

Posted on July 8, 2010 by jmsmith

A month ago (8 June) at the World Pork Expo in Des Moines, IA, more than 80 attendees representing production agriculture, law enforcement, media, and state and federal governments participated in a table-top exercise based on a simulated foot-and-mouth disease outbreak.  Some tabletop exercises merely involve sitting around a table; this one used the three-dimensional model of agricultural facilities that I saw at the National Institute for Animal Agriculture (NIAA) meeting in April. The beauty of conducting this type of exercise with a variety of stakeholders is that it really makes you think—and recognize that your perspective would not be the only one involved in a response.

This is one of several Pork-Checkoff-sponsored farm biosecurity and disease emergency preparedness activities supported by the National Pork Board.  Another one is the Biosecurity Guide for Pork Producers.

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Lessons Learned

Posted on July 7, 2010 by jmsmith

Twenty years of safe deep water drilling did not excuse the oil industry for not being prepared for its recent disaster; 80 years without an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease does not let US livestock industries off the hook from having comprehensive response plans in place.

Starting on the farm, what do we need to be ready to do (or be doing already) to minimize the chance of “going down” in an outbreak?  Can farmers identify potential links with infected or potentially infected farms?  Can access to the farm be limited to a single, controlled entrance point?  Can a cleaning and disinfection station be set up away from facilities housing susceptible animals?  Can employees, especially those who work on other farms or have animals of their own, shower in and out of the workplace?  If animal movements are stopped to stop the spread of disease, how will that affect farms?  If milk movements are stopped for a period of time, how will milk be disposed of that is unmarketable?

 

Addison County, VT highlighted in red

Some of the answers are straightforward, some lead to a myriad of unintended consequences.

I am leading a project with others from UVM and UVM Extension that is working with farmers, people who work with dairy farmers, community members and town officers in Addison County, VT to grapple with these types of questions.

If you’d like to know more about this project, send me an e-mail.

and town officers in Addison County
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Exercising Plans

Posted on July 6, 2010 by jmsmith

In Addison County, we identify and prioritize training and exercises during an annual training and exercise workshop.

Emergency operations plans (EOP) must be “exercised” to make sure they are up-to-date and that everyone involved understands their role.  Think of “exercising” in this context like “practicing.”  Just like athletes practice specific skills that will be performed as needed in a game, responding agencies or organizations need to practice meeting capabilities that could be called on in an emergency event.  Exercises are capabilities-driven rather than event-driven.  Granted the scenario may be a train derailment, but the capabilities being exercised such as activating the emergency operations center, requesting a state resource such as the state HazMat (hazardous materials) team, and evacuating a school could apply to many other scenarios as well.

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Decison Making Paradigm

Posted on July 5, 2010 by jmsmith

On June 15, Secretary Napolitano of the Department of Homeland Security announced final standards for the Voluntary Private Sector Preparedness Accreditation and Certification Program (PS-Prep).  I don’t know the full details of how this certification of private sector entities is to be conducted.  However, I was intrigued by the full titles of the two American standards, which are free.  (The third accepted standard is by the British Standards Institution.)  One is NFPA 1600: Standard on Disaster/Emergency Management and Business Continuity Programs by the National Fire Protection Association; the other is Organizational Resilience: Security, Preparedness, and Continuity Management Systems—Requirements with Guidance for Use (ASIS SPC.1-2009) by ASIS International, approved by the American National Standards Institute, Inc.

Some key words show up in these titles:  Emergency Management, Business Continuity, and Organizational Resilience.  Future posts will explore the meanings of these terms.

Going back to the BP-associated oil spill disaster, one could ask whether anyone involved was applying these standards and would it have made any difference.  The NFPA 1600 recommends considering potential hazards, vulnerability of the entity to those hazards, and analyzing the potential consequences of those hazards.  After considering and analyzing, there must be a decision-making process about which hazards/consequences to devote resources to address.  As the saying goes, only hindsight is 20:20.

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Learning from Another’s Mistake

Posted on June 25, 2010 by jmsmith
Photo by Louis Bedor III

“That’s what a company is supposed to do is plan for a worst-case scenario,” Fearn-Banks said in an interview with Anne C. Mulkern of Greenwire for the New York Times, June 10, 2010.

Kathleen Fearn-Banks is a communications professor at University of Washington and author of the book “Crisis Communication, A Casebook Approach,” which examines the Exxon Valdez spill.

In the days following the worst oil spill on record resulting from an unexpected accident at a deep-water oil drilling site in the Gulf of Mexico, it seems obvious that 20 years of accident-free drilling does not excuse one for not being prepared for the worst.  What lessons were (or weren’t) learned from the Valdez spill?

How tempting it is to say, “We haven’t had foot-and-mouth disease in the US for over 80 years, why bother planning for such an unlikely event?”  What have we (or haven’t we) learned from the experience of the United Kingdom in 2001 or other previously FMD-free countries that have experienced outbreaks in the past decade?

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Welcome to Dr. Julie Smith’s Dairy Blog

Posted on June 3, 2010 by jmsmith

I have started blogging about agricultural emergency preparedness, particularly aspects related to highly contagious disease emergencies.  This topic often goes under the radar in the popular press.  I hope to uncover aspects of emergency preparedness that are relevant to the dairy industry in Vermont and beyond and explain why it’s in everyone’s interest to invest in preparedness.

I hope you will sign up to receive notification of updates.  And, of course, live well and biosecurely!

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VPR Interview

Posted on May 26, 2010 by jmsmith
 

UVM extension Dr Julie Smith with VPR's Jane Lindholm on Vermont Edition May 25, 2010

On May 26 Vermont Edition broadcast an interview with me about the biosecurity projects I have been leading in Vermont with the support of farmers, agricultural industry personnel, and other community leaders.  Jane Lindholm did a nice job capturing the importance of this effort to protect our local agriculture and food systems.

If you have suggestions for programs that you want me to be on and angles or points that you would like to hear emphasized in the future, please send them my way.

Have a great hay day!

Listen to the archive of the interview:

http://www.vpr.net/flash/audio_player/audio_player.php?id=31077

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Japan Battles FMD

Posted on May 19, 2010 by jmsmith

Japan has intensified its campaign to eradicate foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) by extending the zone in which livestock will be depopulated to 10 km (6.2 mi) from affected farms.  Countries that hope to regain international markets as quickly as possible must make difficult choices amidst uncertainty.  Strict movement controls, culling, and cleaning and disinfection are the primary strategies in this situation.  Vaccination is an option but cannot be implemented until the serotype and strain of virus is known, vaccine is produced, and logistics are established for distributing and administering vaccine. Vaccine development must meet very high standards as explained in the OIE Terrestrial Manual.  The use of vaccination may complicate the process of regaining recognition as a country free of FMD.

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Report on 2010 FMD Outbreaks

Posted on May 17, 2010 by jmsmith

CattleNetwork picked up this AP article on the 2010 outbreaks in Japan and South Korea. Interestingly, the AP reports that “Since then, infections have spread to more than 110 facilities in Miyazaki, according to the prefectural government. Some 85,000 cows and pigs will be killed as a result.”  In all likelihood, most of these other farms were infected prior to detection of the index case.

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