Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #109368

Paul Biedrzycki, MPH, MBA¹, M.E. Bruesch, MS, RS¹, D. Campbell, BS, RS¹, and D.M. Follett, BSMT, DVM². (1) Milwaukee Health Department, 841 N. Broadway, Room 315, Milwaukee, WI 53202-3653, 414-286-3521, pbiedr@milwaukee.gov, (2) New Berlin Animal Hospital, 3840 S. Moorland Rd, New Berlin, WI 53151

In the aftermath of September 11th, government agencies at all levels have been engaged in emergency preparedness planning to mitigate the consequences of a terrorism incident, Local Public Health Agencies (LPHAs) in particular, through funding provided by the federal Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) and more recently the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), have invested in significant planning and training initiatives that have forged new partnerships with traditional first responders such as fire departments, law enforcement, and local emergency management to ensure an integrated and comprehensive response to community disasters.

The City of Milwaukee Health Department (MHD), under the umbrella of the DHS Urban Area Security Imitative (UASI), has formed a workgroup to begin integration of veterinarians and other animal health professionals in regional public health emergency preparedness and response planning. The primary goals of the workgroup are: development of County emergency operations plans (EOPs) that describe the role and responsibilities of animal health professionals in an emergency response; development of an alert messaging and information system (VetNet) for real-time dissemination of risk communication; provision of local emergency response training opportunities for animal health professionals; and, assessment of current veterinary capacity and infrastructure as part of a regional resource inventory.

The involvement of veterinary and other animal health professionals on the “front-end” of regional public health emergency planning through the UASI workgroup can only strengthen the overall LPHA response to emerging zoonotic diseases (e.g monkeypox, WNV) and consequently enable effective deployment of currently unrecognized and underutilized community resources.

Learning Objectives:

• -Describe potential role for veterinary and animal health professionals in public health emergency response
• -Describe how veterinary and animal health professionals can be integrated within the public health emergency preparedness framework
• -Describe challenges in building public health partnerships with the veterinary and animal health professional community

Keywords: Emergency, Disasters

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.

Recorded presentation