Researchers at the Center for Animal Disease Modeling and Surveillance (CADMS) in the School of Veterinary Medicine at UC Davis are developing a simulation model to predict the duration and magnitude of a foot-and-mouth disease outbreak, as well as determine the best strategies for containment.
Livestock producers are being asked to participate in an online survey to gather data on animal movements and husbandry practices which will form the basis for a FMD simulation model to be developed by CADMS in collaboration with the National Center for Foreign Animal and Zoonotic Diseases (FAZD). The research is supported by the USDA and the Department of Homeland Security. FMD is on the top of the Department of Homeland Security’s list for a bioterrorist attack on US agriculture. It is estimated that the economic impact of a FMD outbreak in the U.S. would be as high as $13 billion and affect all segments of animal agriculture.
Information about the distribution of livestock nationwide, animal movements and husbandry practices in the US is not up to date. This lack of current information hampers the implementation of an effective response strategy. CADMS guarantees that all the information will be kept confidential and will only be used for modeling purposes.
The online survey can be found at http://www.cadms.ucdavis.edu.
For more information please contact Pelayo Alvarez at: (530) 554-2988.
Source: AgNewsWire