November 16, 2000

The Tripartite Exercise 2000, a foot-and-mouth disease outbreak simulation involving Canada, Mexico, and the United States, has ended. From Nov. 6-9 the three countries tested plans and other documents that developed jointly including the tripartite animal health emergency communications plan; the protocol for the FMD vaccination program; the decision tree for FMD vaccine use; and the contract of the North American FMD vaccine bank.

"This was the first time all three countries conducted a joint exercise of this nature, and there is no doubt that we have all learned quite a bit," said Alfonso Torres, deputy administrator for veterinary services with the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, a part of USDA's marketing and regulatory programs mission area. "Now the work really begins as we evaluate the exercise to draw some conclusions and decide how to adjust our response plans accordingly."

The goal of the exercise was to present a simulated outbreak of FMD and to practice the response to the outbreak internationally as it relates to communication and the possible use of a vaccine. Concurrent exercises were conducted locally and nationally in each country to take advantage of the opportunity that the exercise presented and to add to the realism.

As part of the U.S. response, Texas animal health officials mobilized state resources for an operational test exercise in response to a simulated FMD outbreak in that state. Functional exercises also were conducted in Alberta and Ontario, Canada, and Tamaulipas, Mexico.