In late February 2016 the ZAHP Fusion center held two successful meetings in Omaha Nebraska: An FMD workshop, Management of Foot-and-Mouth Disease in Captive Susceptible Species: Emergency Guidelines for the Captive Wildlife Community ; and the Zoo Ready meeting for Veterinary Services District 5. Both meetings were well attended with participants from AZA, ZAA and the greater zoo community, AAZV, the beef industry, USDA –APHIS, Nebraska Department of Agriculture, Kansas Emergency Management, Texas Animal Health Commission, ESF-11 Coordinator , and perhaps most notably the State Veterinarians for both Nebraska and Kansas who stayed all 4 days along with members of their teams.
These meetings gave the valuable opportunity to connect our institutions with those who would be making decisions in the event of a foreign animal disease (FAD) outbreak, and discuss outbreak management plans and mitigation strategies with key players at the table. The response from both meetings has been overwhelmingly positive from all stakeholder groups, and we will be holding another Zoo Ready meeting in VS district 3 this June.