A significant terrorist event involving agriculture could destroy the US economy. Recent examples of the susceptibility of agri-business to outbreaks of disease underscore this point. The last large outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza (AI) occurred in the northeastern US in 1983-1984, where within the six-month period of disease, there was a loss of $349 million. Another highly pathogenic AI outbreak occurred more recently in Texas. An outbreak of exotic Newcastle disease (END) occurred in Southern California in October 2001 in gaming chickens, but the virus spread quickly through backyard flocks and from there into commercial poultry. Economic loss was $180 million.

On the international front, an unprecedented array of disasters from animal diseases have occurred in the last six years. In 1997, FMD entered Taiwan and necessitated the destruction of eight million pigs, and cost the country over $25 billion. Their entire hog industry was wiped out. In the same year, classical swine fever occurred in the Netherlands and millions of pigs were killed to try and stem the spread of disease. In 2000, FMD continue to spread throughout previously disease-free zones in South America, South Korea, Japan and Russia. Then in 2001, FMD decimated the farming community in the UK. The spread of this outbreak was compounded by the fact that pigs are generally the first species to become infected in a previously FMD-free country by eating infected meat. They produce large quantities of viral aerosol which then travels to neighboring farms to infect cattle and sheep, the latter being silent spreaders of the disease. While the disease is easily recognized in cattle, it is generally mild and difficult to identify in sheep. Thus, failure to recognize the early signs of infection precipitated a widespread outbreak.

Compared to bioterrorism, agriterrorism has been stated to be "appallingly easy". Of greatest concern, are animal diseases that are very infectious and spread rapidly through herds and flocks (eg. FMD, highly pathogenic AI, classical swine fever, rinderpest, and END).

To summarize, globalization and the possibility of agriterrorism have generated a present and future shock for the veterinary profession. An overview of the national needs for veterinary medicine to help assure food safety and global security was provided in the June 2004 issue of Antech News.

[Excerpted from: Crawford, Agenda for Action: Food Safety and Global Security, J Vet Edu 30:110-111, 2003; Brown, ibid, Vulnerabilities in Agriculture, J Vet Edu 30:112-114, 2003; Gibbs, ibid, The Foot-and-Mouth Disease Epidemic of 2001 in the UK: Implications for the USA and the "War on Terror", J Vet Edu 30: 121-132, 2003.]