In 2012, the Division of Animal Health developed a five-year strategic plan designed to improve our ability to respond to animal disease emergencies.  There are five goals that make up the strategy: Stakeholder Engagement, Business Continuity, Information Management, Response Readiness, Traceability, and Communications.  Under each goal there are objectives and action steps identified for each year of the strategy. The plan was vetted with over 80 stakeholders from 20 different organizations. You can read the overarching strategy HERE.

Preparing for animal health emergencies requires a continuous cycle of planning, training and exercise activities.  The KDA Emergency Management Coordinator works with a variety of stakeholder and partner agencies to develop plans and standard operating guides that describe the roles and responsbilities for responding to animal disease emergencies.  When the plans are developed and finalized, training on the plans is provided to personnel having roles and responsibilities related to the plans.  Exercises are conducted to test our ability to carry out the plans and to ensure the plans are workable.

Kansas has been in leader is preparing for animal health emergencies. Preparedness activities have been ongoing for many years and we continue to refine the plans by constant review, adapting to new technology, and the continuous cycle of training and exercising. 

The Kansas Department of Agriculture, Division of Animal Health partnered with USDA to conduct workshops and exercises in zoological parks across the state of Kansas.  We traveled to eight zoos to conduct workshops and followed up with a tabletop exercise with all zoos (KAZOO) in April of 2012. We continue to conduct tabletop exercises in each zoo with the same participants that attended the workshops in 2012.  Exercise participants include zoo workers, law enforcement officials, emergency management coordinators, county extension agents, public health representatives, state and federal animal health officials, and other interested agencies and organizations. 

This project was well received and resulted in many benefits for the zoos, animal health officials and community partners.  Plans have been revised and updated and new partnerships have been formed.  You can read the after action report from the KAZOO exercise HERE.

Responding to food contamination incidents is the responsibility of the Division of Food Safety and Lodging. A description of the actions that occur in response to a food contamination event can be found in the Kansas Food and Agriculture Incident Annex. 

The Department has sponsored several Department of Homeland Security approved training courses focused on Food Defense. Staff also participate in exercises and training activities sponsored by USDA and FDA.