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Veneman recalls numerous animal disease scares during USDA term

Ann Veneman, USDA Ag Secretary during 9/11, says the attack on America exposed vulnerabilities that included foreign animal disease threats.

 

Veneman claims her four years leading USDA were marred by arguably the most animal disease scares of any ag secretary, beginning with the European outbreak of Foot and Mouth Disease in early 2001.

“It was spreading rapidly.  And our challenge, and I had no sub-cabinet at the time, was to determine how to keep it out of this country.  Because it’s easily transmitted and easily spread.  Frankly, we were able to keep it out.  Then came 9/11.”

At that point, she says every department of the federal government had to search for any kind of susceptibility.

For the Department of Agriculture, that meant considering FMD a potential weapon of terrorism.

“So when I look back at some of the challenges that we had to deal with, I look at those issues because they so took up what we were having to deal with while I was at USDA.  It was kind of crisis after crisis after crisis.”

Before Veneman left the Department of Ag in 2005, the U.S. endured outbreaks of exotic Newcastle disease and avian flu in poultry, as well as the first case of BSE.

Veneman was part of a panel featuring former ag secretaries discussing food insecurity at the World Food Prize Monday.