Psychologic first aid and veterinarians in rural communities undergoing livestock depopulation

JAVMA, Vol 231, No. 5, September 1, 2007 N pandemics of foreign animal disease (FAD), such as highly pathogenic avian influenza (AI), and agriterrorist threats, such as foot-and-mouth disease (FMD), have pushed US veterinarians to new states of readiness for disease recognition, control, and eradication. Regardless of the cause of animal disease, a likely outcome of an incident of severe disease is depopulation of the affected flock or herd. Depopulation refers to the killing of animals efficiently and quickly under extenuating circumstances, such as animals with a zoonotic disease, during rapidly spreading outbreaks, or when animals are isolated by natural disaster. It is in the days to months following a depopulation event that local food supply veterinarians may make their greatest social and professional impacts on farm families and rural communities. In terms of disaster planning, the veterinary profession under federal leadership seems to have invested most of its effort in the recognition of FMD, a proposed agriterrorist agent, and AI, both of which are severe economic threats. No doubt FMD and AI are real threats in our globalized and terrorized world. However, preparation for recognition and eradication of a specific disease seems to be the middle step in three layers of disease preparedness: prophylaxis, biosecurity as a means of surveillance and control of disease and enhanced productivity; therapeusis, recognition, control, and eradication of FAD, emerging diseases, and FMD; and rehabilitation, care of the rural community, and repopulation of livestock. Biosecurity, under various names, was once the driver of veterinary medicine in the United States, transforming US livestock production from a cottage industry in 1884 to a global supplier of meat, hides, hair, broodstock, and power, following the eradication of contagious bovine pleuropneumonia in 1892. Today, biosecurity has the potential to increase producer profit and veterinary income and to serve as an early warning system for emerging disease and FAD and agriterrorism. An explosion of protocols for biosecurity has appeared on the World Wide Web, many developed by producer groups and extension departments for the specific species under cultivation. Psychologic first aid and veterinarians in rural communities undergoing livestock depopulation