11 October 2007

3 minute read

North America

Ralph Richardson, dean of the college, and Lisa Freeman, the college's associate dean for research and graduate programs, are traveling to Brazil and Paraguay Oct. 17-24. They will meet with Dr. David Ashford, assistant area and regional director at the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service in Rio De Janeiro. Ashford also is liaison to the Pan American Foot-and-Mouth Disease Center and coordinates foot-and-mouth disease cases and zoonoses activities across several South American countries.

The topic of conversation will be how to eliminate foot-and-mouth disease from the Western Hemisphere by 2010.

"As international travel and trade become more common, establishing large disease-free zones will protect the country's livestock and potentially open avenues for increased trade of meat, milk and livestock," Richardson said. "As a veterinary college that is committed to enhancing animal health in Kansas, the United States and around the world, it just makes good sense for us to explore the possibilities of being involved in eradicating a disease such as foot-and-mouth."

Foot-and-mouth is a particular threat in South America, which had an outbreak in 2001 in northern Argentina and Uruguay, and in southern Brazil. The disease affected 4,000 farms and caused the slaughter of 20,000 animals. It's estimated that $35 million in fresh meat exports and millions of dollars in sales were lost, as well as thousands of jobs. Officials later determined that the regional investment in immunization, surveillance and prevention had declined.

Richardson said it is important to be diligent when it comes to monitoring and preventing the spread of animal diseases.

"Though the U.S. has been free of foot-and-mouth disease since 1929, we are not immune," he said "We must continue to do all we can to stay foot-and-mouth-disease-free. The cost of the alternative is tremendous."

That cost is also why K-State College of Veterinary Medicine administrators support Manhattan's bid to become home to the National Bio and Agro-defense Facility, a large-scale animal disease lab. Researchers at this federal lab will be charged with studying and developing vaccines and other countermeasures for diseases like foot-and-mouth.

"Locating the NBAF in Manhattan would make it tremendously helpful for us remain abreast of the most current research and preventative measures known to the USDA," Richardson said. "The more collaborative and efficient we can be in our research, the more effective we can be in understanding and eradicating threatening diseases."

K-State's expertise and resources will be enhanced by its work with South American officials, Freeman said.

"K-State's engagement in these efforts to eradicate trans-boundary animal diseases will enhance the research and training missions of the departments and units with expertise in food safety and security," Freeman said. Specifically, programs in pre-harvest food safety, infectious disease surveillance, vaccine development and animal identification could benefit.

While in South America, Richardson and Freeman also will work on developing externship and field experiences for undergraduate, graduate and professional students, as well as planning a potential conference at K-State to bring researchers from North and South America together to collaborate.

"Dr. Ashford is eager to engage Kansas State University students and faculty, as well as industry leaders along the Kansas City region's Animal Health Corridor, in a global effort to eradicate foot-and-mouth from our hemisphere," Freeman said.

Ashford was a speaker at K-State earlier this year, and has since joined the ranks of the College of Veterinary Medicine's adjunct faculty. He is also former director of the Plum Island Animal Disease Center, the facility that the National Bio and Agro-defense Facility will replace.

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