Contingency Planning for Animal Diseases

Book excerpt: Outbreaks of infectious animal diseases within the last 10 - 15 years in areas with intensive livestock production have shown how vulnerable the production systems can be when confronted with an outbreak of a highly infectious disease such as avian influenza, foot and mouth disease or classical swine fever. The veterinary administrations of the Nordic and Baltic countries have established contingency plans; the objectives of the plans include: - to protect animal and human health - to minimize economic loss for the livestock sector and the society as a whole - to minimize damage to the environment. This publication provides information on measures to be considered in contingency planning; the measures take into account: - the pre-epidemic period; disease prevention - the epidemic period; disease eradication - the post-epidemic period; regaining of animal health status