TY - JOUR
T1 - Flu at the zoo
T2 - Emergency management training for the nation's zoos and aquariums
AU - Johnson, Yvette Joyce
AU - Nadler, Yvonne
AU - Field, Eugene
AU - Myint, Maung San
AU - O'hara-Ruiz, Marilyn Sue
AU - Ruman, Anna
AU - Olson, Steve
AU - Herrmann, John Arthur
AU - Briscoe, Johanna
AU - Hickey, Marisa
AU - Kunkle, James
N1 - Funding Information:
Acknowledgments: This project was funded by Cooperative Agreement Number No. 11-6100-0066-CA between the USDA-APHIS-AC and the University of Illinois. The authors would like to thank Dr. Gay Miller and Mr. Keith Gehrand for serving as exercise evaluators and Mr. William Brown for development of maps and spatial data in support of the exercise. In addition, the authors would like to thank the all of our participating zoological institutions, and stakeholder group representatives including the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, the Multistate Partnership for Security in Agriculture, the Illinois Farm Bureau, USDA APHIS divisions of Animal Care, Veterinary Services, Wildlife Services, NIH and all of the state, local, and federal agencies whose personnel contributed time and resources to the conduct of this exercise.
Funding Information:
The Flu at the Zoo exercise provided a unique training and program evaluation opportunity in zoonotic disease outbreak preparedness for zoos and regulatory agencies charged with responding to such an outbreak. Although animal exhibitors may participate in state and federal natural disaster exercises and in 2012 a zoo-based Foot and Mouth Disease exercise was conducted in Kansas (Johnson 2012), to the authors’ knowledge no other exercises targeting response to a simulation of a zoonotic disease event affecting zoo collection animals and personnel in the US, have been reported in the literature. Funded in part by a USDA-APHIS-Animal Care grant, this exercise was developed for the 16 AZA accredited zoos and aquariums located in Illinois, Indiana, and Missouri. The Midwestern location for the initial exercise encompassed large and small zoological institutions in urban, suburban and rural locations, some with relatively close proximity to livestock and poultry production facilities (see Figure 1 for a map of the density of production birds (chickens, turkey, and game birds) and participating zoos within the
Publisher Copyright:
© by De Gruyter 2014.
PY - 2014/9/1
Y1 - 2014/9/1
N2 - The movement of people and animals within zoos and aquariums poses a risk of zoonotic disease dissemination within human and animal populations. Flu at the Zoo is a table-top exercise designed to provide animal exhibitors and regulatory agency personnel an opportunity to evaluate their outbreak response plans. Developed for zoos and aquariums in Illinois, Indiana, and Missouri, it created a realistic scenario of an avian influenza disease outbreak. A total of 82 participants attended the exercise held in June of 2012. Representatives from each of the 16 accredited zoos and aquariums in the region attended, along with representatives from the public health, agricultural animal health, wildlife, poultry industry, and emergency management sectors. Recommendations for the participants included the need for increased training opportunities for zoo and aquarium personnel on the Incident Command System and National Incident Management System. It was also recommended that communications be enhanced between zoos and aquariums and the local, state, and federal agency first responder personnel. Suggestions for improving the exercise included: providing the situation manual to players in advance of the exercise and creating discussion groups based on jurisdictional boundaries so that legal authorities and policy differences across state boundaries didn't impede the discussion.
AB - The movement of people and animals within zoos and aquariums poses a risk of zoonotic disease dissemination within human and animal populations. Flu at the Zoo is a table-top exercise designed to provide animal exhibitors and regulatory agency personnel an opportunity to evaluate their outbreak response plans. Developed for zoos and aquariums in Illinois, Indiana, and Missouri, it created a realistic scenario of an avian influenza disease outbreak. A total of 82 participants attended the exercise held in June of 2012. Representatives from each of the 16 accredited zoos and aquariums in the region attended, along with representatives from the public health, agricultural animal health, wildlife, poultry industry, and emergency management sectors. Recommendations for the participants included the need for increased training opportunities for zoo and aquarium personnel on the Incident Command System and National Incident Management System. It was also recommended that communications be enhanced between zoos and aquariums and the local, state, and federal agency first responder personnel. Suggestions for improving the exercise included: providing the situation manual to players in advance of the exercise and creating discussion groups based on jurisdictional boundaries so that legal authorities and policy differences across state boundaries didn't impede the discussion.
KW - aquarium
KW - avian influenza
KW - captive wildlife
KW - emergency management
KW - outbreak response
KW - zoo
KW - zoonotic disease
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84910124490&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=84910124490&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1515/jhsem-2013-0052
DO - 10.1515/jhsem-2013-0052
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84910124490
SN - 1547-7355
VL - 11
SP - 415
EP - 435
JO - Journal of Homeland Security and Emergency Management
JF - Journal of Homeland Security and Emergency Management
IS - 3
ER -