Emergency Management

The Idaho State Department of Agriculture (ISDA) is responsible for the prevention and control of foreign, emerging and emergency animal diseases. ISDA coordinates with the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare to address Zoonotic disease (diseases that are transmissible from animals to humans) issues, and with the Idaho Bureau of Homeland Security (BHS) for planning and preparedness to respond to an animal health emergency disease. BHS maintains the Idaho Emergency Operations Plan to describe the collaborative process that will take place in case of an emergency animal disease.

ISDA has adopted the National Incident Management System (NIMS) and will implement the Incident Command System (ICS) in coordination with BHS to respond to or manage any incident for which ISDA provides support. Introductory NIMS/ ICS courses and Animal Emergency/ Disaster Response courses are available on-line at www.fema.gov

An Agro-Terrorism Awareness training CD for computer (appropriate for a general audience) is available from BHS. To obtain a copy of this CD, please contact BHS at (208) 422-3417.

The Idaho Veterinary Emergency Response Team (IVERT) is a group of private veterinary practitioners and veterinary technicians who wish to be trained in animal health emergency management issues. They are being trained to help state and federal animal health officials respond to any foreign animal or emergency disease in Idaho or the United States. If you would like to be part of the Emergency Response Team, please complete an application * and return it to ISDA.