Dealing with unexpected or unknown emergencies: examples of Australian approaches

Emergencies may derive from unknown agents or an unusual incident from a known exotic or endemic disease agent. Veterinary administrations must be able to deal rapidly with these occurrences, to allay public fears, media interpretations, and environmental or political concerns. The emergency approach to deal with such incidents should be based on well-established disease control principles. In dealing with the unknown, veterinary authorities must take a comprehensive approach to managing the problem. Events such as the bovine spongiform encephalopathy in the United Kingdom and Europe have shown that management becomes much more complex when animal health events also involve human disease. The absence of scientific knowledge creates an environment of speculation, fear and mistrust, which may seriously erode the ability of animal health authorities to respond as they would wish. An established structure which identifies the roles and responsibilities of key players and clearly states where accountability for handling the situation ultimately rests is essential. In addition, emergency plans which have been tested by training exercises, for example, are critical. Other operators who could be involved in the management of emergencies must also be fully aware of their roles in the event of a problem. Over recent years, Australia has experienced a number of new diseases which have had to be handled in an environment of uncertainty and in conditions where knowledge was lacking. The authors briefly outline a number of these incidents as case studies and list the key factors involved in dealing with each emergency.