A Foreign Animal Disease is defined as an important transmissible disease of livestock or poultry believed to be absent from the United States.  Foreign animal diseases are considered a threat to the United States when they significantly affect human health, or when there is appreciable cost associated with control or eradication of disease in livestock. In addition to disease control costs, the most immediate consequence of an FAD in the United States is the loss of export markets.

This particular exercise focused on the state’s response to Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD).  FMD is a severe, highly contagious disease of cattle, pigs, sheep, goats and deer.  Humans are not affected by FMD but can carry the disease on their clothing and infect other animals.  The 2001 FMD outbreak in the United Kingdom is estimated to have cost the U.K. $20 billion and their cattle market is 10 times smaller than that of the United States.  The economic impact of FMD as well as the fact that it is a highly contagious disease makes the preparations to respond to FMD a main concern for the State of Alabama and the United States.

A large number of federal, state, and local agencies, as well as many stakeholder groups worked for over three months to help design this exercise.  This exercise was a follow-up to a Foreign Animal Disease Tabletop Exercise that took place in October, 2007, which brought most of the same stakeholders and agencies together.

 

Alabama Foot and Mouth Disease Full Scale Exercise Pics