U.S. Ag's Biodefense still Inadequate

November 2, 2016 — 

When U.S. troops went into an Afghanistan cave in 2002, they found an Al-Qaida list of planned bioweapon pathogens, including six human pathogens, six livestock and poultry pathogens and four plant pathogens, Gen. Richard Myers, interim president of Kansas State University, said at a recent Bipartisan Policy Center panel discussion highlighting the threat of bio/agroterrorism and the importance of including agriculture in biosecurity and biodefense. [Source: Feedstuffs, November 1, 2016]

Myers participated in the Oct. 13 panel with Tom Daschle, former Senate majority leader and co-founder of the Bipartisan Policy Center, and Mike Rogers, a former congressman from Michigan. The talk was titled "Bio Agro-Defense Policy: America’s Food Supply, Health & Economy at Risk."

The panel discussed the 2015 "Blue Ribbon Panel on Biodefense" report, which noted that the U.S. is still highly vulnerable to biological agents, including biological weapons and natural disease threats to agriculture.

Rogers, former chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, pointed out that terrorists have become much more sophisticated, highlighting the discovery of a laptop in Syria with a documented strategy for using biological warfare.

Crops are the under-addressed aspect of bioweapons, Myers said. A major outbreak of food animal or food crop diseases would do more than create an economic impact; it also would create fear among people and would lead to distrust of the government – exactly what terrorists want.

Kansas State University’s biosafety level-3 Biosecurity Research Institute at Pat Roberts Hall supports comprehensive "field-to-fork" infectious disease research programs that address threats to plant, animal and human health. The Biosecurity Research Institute is jump-starting research planned for the National Bio & Agro-defense Facility, including work on Japanese encephalitis, Rift Valley fever, classical swine fever and African swine fever.

Tammy Beckham, dean of the College of Veterinary Medicine, participated in a second panel at the Bipartisan Policy Center. She has spent a majority of her career protecting food systems and discussed how to better use resources to combat bioterrorism.

Beckham noted critical gaps in the U.S., such as inadequate countermeasures, undeveloped diagnostic tests and a lack of a comprehensive biodefense program. She said it is important to incentivize people and organizations to improve biosecurity and address One Health, which involves connections among human, animal and environmental health.

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