FOOT AND MOUTH DISEASE CROSS BORDER EMERGENCY SIMULATION

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OTTAWA, March 18, 2005 -- The Canadian Food Inspection Agency is continuing its ongoing efforts to protect livestock populations by participating in Equinox 2005 - a foot and mouth disease (FMD) cross border emergency exercise. The emergency simulation will take place with the United States March 21- 23, 2005, as part of a series of tripartite exercises of the North American Animal Health Committee established under the North American Free Trade Agreement with Canada, U.S. and Mexico. An essential part of the committee's work is to test emergency preparedness for foreign animal diseases and the effectiveness of the North American FMD Vaccine Bank. Equinox 2005 will include emergency operations centres in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont in the United States, along with New Brunswick, Quebec and Ottawa in Canada. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency and the U.S. Department of Agriculture are managing the activities of the emergency exercise. The exercise will provide an opportunity to perform emergency duties in response to a simulated cross border disease outbreak. Equinox 2005 will test internal and external communications among jurisdictions and allow federal, provincial and state emergency management officials to work together. The emergency simulation will also test the capabilities of geospacial mapping to chart the spread of an outbreak. The exercise will also include the logistics of vaccine transportation and the use of a wind dispersion model to predict movement of a virus. The tripartite FMD agreement, managed by the chief veterinarian officers of the three countries, is not only committed to testing emergency preparedness, but also helps to develop strategies and models for issues such as animal identification and surveillance systems. - 30 - For further information: Canadian Food Inspection Agency Media Relations Tel.: (613) 228-6682

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2016-12-15

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FOOT AND MOUTH DISEASE CROSS BORDER EMERGENCY SIMULATION

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