Listeria – When Food Bites Back

Food safety is a top priority at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). As the only agency tasked with tracking human cases of foodborne illness at the national level, the CDC works – in collaboration with the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) and the Food Safety & Inspection Service (USDA/FSIS) – 24/7 to stop and prevent dangerous outbreaks. Stakeholders involved in the U.S. food system, from farmers to regulators to consumers, rely on the CDC for information to help keep the food supply safe.

Governmental Laboratories: Protecting the Public’s Health

The Annual Meeting of the Association of Public Health Laboratories hosted more than 500 participants who share the common goal of improving public health efforts and laboratory preparedness. Through workshops and online resources, people from multiple disciplines can learn more about the role of public health laboratories in detecting and investigating emerging threats.

Promoting Food Security in Disaster Relief Situations

In 2011, 14.9 percent of U.S. households (17.9 million households) were “food insecure,” according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s study, Household Food Security in the United States in 2011. Those numbers equate to slightly more than 50 million Americans living in food-insecure households: 33.5 million adults and almost 17 million children. Many of the families queried in the study rely on food provided by various charities to feed themselves. Unfortunately, the nation’s charitable food supply chain itself is one of the most complex nutrition delivery systems in the entire world.

Early Detection of Zoonotic Emerging Infectious Diseases

In 2009, the H1N1 pandemic strain of influenza served as a dramatic wake-up call for biosurveillance experts around the world. Despite major advances in domestic and global surveillance capabilities, H1N1

Counter-Agroterrorism 101

Some biological agents – anthrax and ricin, for example – can be used as weapons against human targets; others specifically attack animals and food crops. Both types of attack, though, can have devastating effects on the economy and on the morale and overall wellbeing of a nation. To mitigate these threats, the public and private sectors must cooperate to recognize and close existing gaps.

SURVEY: Special Event Plans – When Things Go Wrong

DomPrep would like to know your opinions and experiences in response to key questions that were developed as a result of earlier discussions. Special events occur in large and small communities – and so do disasters. Your responses will help other emergency planners, responders, and receivers better plan for and execute future events as well as the incidents within those events. Take the Survey Now!

FINAL REPORT: BIODEFENSE – The Threat, the Cost & the Priority

The biothreat topic is important not only for the actual risk of attack, but also the perceived risk. To be sufficiently prepared, a balance must be reached – for security, technology, and situational awareness. This report addresses various key components of biodefense – the threats, the costs, and the priorities.

Food Safety: An Emergency Manager’s Perspective

Emergency management is an evolving discipline that requires a progressive emergency manager to fulfill new and expanding requirements for success. Successful leaders in this field follow a systematic problem-solving process and excel at coordinating multiple agencies and information sources rather than simply being experts in one subject. The seven and a half traits discussed here describe the ultimate emergency manager.

Protecting the Milk Supply During a Foreign Animal Disease Outbreak

With thousands of farms and millions of cattle scattered across the United States, regulators, dairy producers, and veterinarians strive to protect the nation’s food supply, including the milk supply chain from cow to breakfast table. Emergency preparedness planners, therefore, must work with agricultural suppliers to protect milk and other food products.

Defending the Food Supply: The Basic Recipe

Protecting the food supply chain and defending against intentional contamination requires preventive/defensive efforts at all levels of government, particularly within local communities. All stakeholders therefore must be able to identify vulnerabilities, integrate federal requirements, and determine the resources and training needed to effectively protect the nation’s food supply.
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