Exercising your plan to determine its strengths and weaknesses is a critical point in the planning process. Tabletop and functional exercises provide a valuable opportunity to test plans in a “no risk” environment, and subsequent analysis of exercise outcomes allows for the improvement of the plan, making it more useful for an actual event!
The exercises below are available for individual facility use and the tabletop exercises include documents that may be adapted to better meet your needs.
Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) Preparedness and Response Exercise
This tabletop exercise was developed to assess preparedness for Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) in a zoological facility. The scenario begins with the FMD outbreak already underway and confirmed cases in the facility petting zoo, allowing players to consider necessary actions during an active outbreak.
Avian Influenza Zoo Preparedness Exercise
This exercise is designed to evaluate institutional capacity to respond to an outbreak of avian influenza within a zoological facility.
Zoo Ready 2015
This exercise focused on the impact and preparedness for natural disasters, specifically, a tornado.
Zoo Ready 2014
Originally conducted in 2014, this exercise was designed to bring together Illinois zoos with State and Federal regulatory personnel in a complicated Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza outbreak simulation.
Flu at the Zoo I
The first “Flu at the Zoo” initiative was a unique opportunity to assess preparedness for Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) in AZA institutions in the Midwest.
Flu at the Zoo II
This exercise was developed based upon the Improvement Plan from Flu at the Zoo I, using a 2-part approach to address gaps noted in that tabletop exercise to further prepare the zoological community