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Confronting Terrorism Protecting Pennsylvania’s animal herds By Melissa W. Kaye
	The foot-and-mouth disease crisis in England started with a few animals at one pig farm in Northumberland County. Highly contagious—it travels through the air and even on the wheels of vehicles—it soon spread to various livestock facilities throughout the country. By the end of the epidemic, millions of animals had been destroyed and thousands of farmers affected.   In the summer of 2002, avian influenza in Virginia cost poultry producers 5 million birds.   Exotic New Castle disease in Southern California over the past year spread from backyard flocks to several commercial poultry operations. Officials intervened by traveling door-to-door looking for sick birds.   Governments went through plenty of red tape and guesswork to try to minimize the damage of these outbreaks. But if officials had the use of the type of technology being applied to the Pennsylvania Animal Health Emergency Response and Diagnostic System (PAHERDS)—a joint project of Penn State and the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture—they may have been able to lessen the impact.   The project, which Dr. Rick Day, associate professor of soil science and environmental information systems and director of the Land Analysis Laboratory in the College of Agricultural Sciences, is heading for Penn State, will track animal operations across the state. In the case of a highly contagious disease outbreak, the Department of Agriculture—with the use of the map-based computer system detailing farm locations and their animal species—will be able to contact producers near an infected or suspect farm to tell them to take action.   Penn State Cooperative Extension agricultural agents also can use the information to help protect the farmers with whom they have contact.   During a time when homeland security is an issue, and a terrorist could introduce animal or plant diseases intentionally, such technology will make life easier, Day said.   Currently if there is an outbreak, officials at the Department of Agriculture alert farmers with a public service announcement or go out by car looking for producers near an infected farm. But officials lack any kind of electronic system that provides detailed farm information at their fingertips.   “It will save us many miles of travel and lots of paperwork,” Dr. John Enck, director of the Bureau of Animal Health and Diagnostic Services at the Department of Agriculture, said. “It will cut down on the time it takes to control a disease and keep it from spreading.” Only the Department of Agriculture and Cooperative Extension will have access to the database.   Dr. Nan Hanshaw Roberts, animal and poultry health manager at the Department of Agriculture, stressed the importance of delivering rapid and accurate communication to farmers in the event of an emergency. She said the mapping will allow the Bureau of Animal Health “to quickly determine where animals are located in or near an infected area, then quickly contact the producers, apprise them of the situation and make recommendations on steps to reduce the risk to their animals.”   A challenge is to enter into the system Pennsylvania’s nearly 60,000 farms. The Cooperative Extension agents, who already have working relationships with farmers in their areas, are ideal to enter the information. Working off digitized aerial photographs and richly layered maps created from geographic information systems (GIS) technology, the agents go into the database to enter known production sites. An agent enters the size of an operation, the types of animals and who to contact in an emergency. If the agent does not recognize an operation that appears on the map, then he or she will go out to the farm and gather the information.   So far this approach has been effective, reports David Swartz, Cooperative Extension agricultural agent in south central Pennsylvania, where PAHERDS is in the pilot phase. In fact, he said, someone unfamiliar with a county might miss several operations due to old aerial photographs, which are produced by the federal government and are very costly.   “There have been a lot of new hog and broiler constructions, and we are mapping farms where there is a blank field on the aerial photograph,” he said, explaining the aerial photo was taken before the operation was built.   In either case, he said farmers have been cooperative about sharing information.   “Farmers understand the world has changed and realize that something like this is a necessity,” Swartz said.   In addition to emergency response, PAHERDS also will help officials with preparedness. If a large number of animals died or had to be euthanized, transportation and disposal options must be available.   The GIS mapping technology provides information to animal health officials to help them make decisions in such matters. The technology creates complex maps, based on data input, that depict layers of information—from water quality to soil types to the location of homes (see below).   Sean Crager, GIS coordinator for the Department of Agriculture, points out there are still many issues that need addressing before there is a fully operational response system. Still, he said, “The joint effort between the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture and Penn State is an excellent opportunity to map our herd locations and to develop the type of quick response system that has the capability to lessen the impact that an outbreak would have on the livestock industries. We’re looking at saving producers millions of dollars in expenses.”   Day expects PAHERDS to be in place by early 2004, with more Cooperative Extension agents entering information about the farms in their counties throughout the fall and winter.   “If our food supply is threatened, that has a tremendous effect on citizens,” Day said. “The economic impact of contamination of animal herds could be significant. You need a system to deal with it. There will be big problems if you have to wait weeks for information.”
Mapping Pennsylvania, layer by layer By Karen L. Trimbath and Melissa W. Kaye
	Maps describe the features of a given place, either land or sea or stars, and they are often used to provide direction to those who are lost or help the curious understand their physical surroundings.   But Penn State’s Dr. Rick Day and his staff in the Land Analysis Laboratory have created detailed Web-based maps of Pennsylvania—thanks to geographic information systems (GIS) technology—that local government officials and community members can use in a number of other ways.   The maps, created from data input, include a range of information about a region, from water quality to soil type to the path of a floodplain to the location of homes.   “GIS is a tool for decision making,” Day said. “It puts data at your fingertips and helps you do the analysis.”   Day and his staff train local governments to implement GIS for various services in their communities. Take 911, for example. GIS technology allows officials to keep track of phones in every single home in a county—a must in emergency response.   “We get a phone call and can cross-reference the phone number and address on the map instantly,” Dan Tancibok, director of Public Safety in Centre County, said. “In this day and age, it’s essential. I don’t know how you can do without it.”   Local governments also use GIS maps for city planning, for zoning purposes and to assess growth boundaries, as well as for tax assessment.   With a system developed for Mifflin County by Day and his staff, citizens can access the maps for a number of purposes, including property evaluation (if a home is on a floodplain, for example, it could lead to higher insurance costs); they also can apply for permits online.   Pennsylvania agricultural producers can market their products and services to consumers and other businesses through the Land Analysis Laboratory’s AgMap (http://www.agmap.psu.edu), which allows them to provide a business description and detailed location with GIS technology.   “Not only does GIS help improve communication between government departments and among businessowners, but it also helps empower the public with the data it provides,” Day said.