Newswise — Michigan State University, the Michigan Department of Agriculture and the state's largest veterinarian organization have come together to form the Michigan Emergency Veterinary Network, or "Vet Net," as part of Michigan's homeland security efforts in the animal health and protection arena.
Michigan's Vet Net is a comprehensive education and training program geared toward the state's nearly 3,600 licensed veterinarians aimed at improving awareness, preparedness and response to animal disease-related emergencies.
One of the first programs of its kind in the nation, Vet Net is made possible by federal homeland security dollars and funding from the MSU College of Veterinary Medicine.
The program will include two main components: a general education series for all veterinarians and an in-depth emergency preparedness training program for those who sign up to serve in the "corps."
This volunteer corps will be a group of private veterinary practitioners from across Michigan trained to identify and handle a wide variety of animal diseases that will help supplement state and federal veterinarian/agency efforts and further ensure the health and safety of the state's livestock and domestic animals.
"Practitioners are often the first to see animals with unusual symptoms and are the ones more likely to talk with the farmers or producers or pet owners," said Lonnie King, dean of the MSU College of Veterinary Medicine. "We need to make sure the veterinarians in the field are prepared to deal with emergency disease situations."
"Our role in this joint project is to provide the expertise and training for the participating veterinarians," said Daniel Grooms, an MSU associate professor of large animal clinical sciences who is heading up MSU's role in the project. "It's important they have this resource to tap into, especially if they are dealing with emerging diseases that they aren't familiar with."
The single case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) or "mad cow disease," in Washington state helped showcase the tremendous value this program could have in Michigan should such a disease be detected in the state, said Dan Wyant, director of the Michigan Department of Agriculture.
"In addition to complementing the state's existing food and agriculture security efforts, with 'Vet Net' Michigan will have a built-in support network that will be critical for rapidly distributing information during an animal health emergency like BSE, as well as having a team of trained frontline responders who could assist in surveillance and response efforts," he said.
"Success in addressing disease outbreaks is markedly enhanced by early disease detection and a swift, appropriate response," said Mary Violante of the Michigan Veterinary Medical Association. "Success in handling a situation in Michigan will be partially dependent on providing our private veterinary practitioners with adequate knowledge and skills to recognize and respond to a cadre of diseases in multiple animal species." Vet Net will be implemented in three phases. The first will focus on the development and distribution of a resource binder and emergency contact information for all licensed veterinarians in Michigan. Fact sheets on biosecurity, foreign animal diseases, bioterrorism agents and emerging infectious diseases of concern in Michigan and the United States will be also distributed on a quarterly basis.
When all the fact sheets are distributed, veterinarians in Michigan will have a resource binder with information on all diseases in Category A of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's list of possible bioterrorism agents and all diseases on the U.S. Department of Agriculture High Consequence Livestock Pathogens and Toxins list.
Phase II of the program entails specialized training for Michigan veterinarians. The first training session, to be held this spring, will focus on the incident command system and biosecurity practices. Veterinarians who complete this initial training session will become certified members of the Vet Net corps and will be considered "on call" in case of an animal health emergency in their local or regional communities.
Phase III of Vet Net is ongoing training opportunities for Michigan veterinarians on foreign animal diseases, emerging infectious diseases, bioterrorism agents and emergency response. These training sessions will help the Vet Net corps maintain a high level of preparedness in case of an emergency.
Vet Net partners include MDA, the MSU College of Veterinary Medicine, MVMA, the Michigan Department of Community Health, MSU Extension, USDA and private practitioners across the state.
Veterinarians who wish to register for the Vet Net training program can contact MDA's Animal Industry Division at (517) 373-1077. For more information about Vet Net, visit http://www.michigan.gov/emergingdiseases
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