National Wildlife Disease Program (NWDP)

• avian influenza
• West Nile virus
• feral swine diseases
• toxoplasmosis
• leptospirosis

WDB participates in practice HPAI emergency response scenario (July 2008)
On July 22, 2008, WDB Goldstein participated in a Full-Scale Pandemic Influenza Incident Command System (ICS) Exercise hosted by the Hawaii Department of Transportation (HDOT), Hawaii Disaster Medical Assistance Team (DMAT), and the U.S. Army, among others. Operation “Lightning Rescue” was the annual DMAT major exercise involving the hypothetical occurrence of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) arriving in Honolulu on July 22nd by plane. The exercise was designed to initiate the setup of a Unified Command to manage an emergency response to a suspected HPAI outbreak in people arriving from a foreign country. An Incident Command Post was established and staffed, while medical and veterinary crews were deployed to the quarantined terminal gates to attend to passengers and their “helper” animals exhibiting signs of illness.

Hawaii working toward completion of Pacific Region HPAI Surveillance Field Report (June 2008)
WDB Sam Goldstein met with state and federal partner agencies to assist them with their HPAI surveillance sample collection and to discuss the compilation of a Pacific Region HPAI Surveillance Field Report. WDB Goldstein also participated in a final discussion of last year's HPAI Emergency Response Table Top Exercise After Action Report in order to discuss a variety of hypothetical issues that may arise in the event of and HPAI-related emergency.

Contact:
Wildlife Disease Biologist Sam Goldstein (HI)
(808)861-8575
Samuel.M.Goldstein@aphis.usda.gov

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