Media Center

By Blake Aued
Athens Banner-Herald
Published on 08/25/06

If terrorists wanted to attack the United States, the best way to do it would be to spread disease through our food, a panel of Georgia congressmen said Thursday.

Reps. John Barrow, John Linder, Charlie Norwood and David Scott heard testimony on agroterrorism - mainly the intentional spread of disease from animals to humans - from six government experts during a hearing Thursday at the University of Georgia.

"We are vitally concerned with protecting our food supply," said Scott, D-Atlanta. "If we have a weak link in the war on terror, this is it."

Terrorists could infect the nation's food supply with animal-borne diseases like anthrax or avian influenza by exposing American livestock to microbes, said officials with the federal departments of Homeland Security and Agriculture and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Such an attack would be cheap and devastating, said Barrow, D-Savannah.

"That's definitely right up al-Qaida's alley," he said.

In fact, there already have been "many cases" of intentional food contamination, said Corrie Brown, a UGA veterinary medicine professor, though she said specific cases are classified. However, DHS Chief Medical Officer Jeff Runge said an agroterrorism plot has never been uncovered.

Three-quarters of new human diseases in the past 100 years originated in animals, according to CDC senior veterinarian Lonnie King. And animals can easily be smuggled into the country through the United States' porous ports and Southern border, officials agreed.

Scott said 1,600 people "of Islamic belief or faith" have come to the United States from Mexico, but other officials could not confirm that figure.

The best way to prevent or minimize the danger from such attacks is a "one medicine" approach emphasizing the overlap between animal and human diseases and cooperation between countries and various federal, state and local agencies, experts said.

The strategy involves relying on farmers to spot signs of foreign diseases and alert authorities.

"Farmers will be called upon as both first responders and first preventers," said Linder, a Duluth Republican who chairs the House Subcommittee on Prevention of Nuclear and Biological Attack.

In Georgia, the $13 billion poultry industry is likely to take it upon itself to quarantine or kill infected birds to protect the rest of its flocks, said Gary Black, a member of the Georgia Rural Development Council and candidate for state agriculture commissioner.

"They understand they're playing in a global marketplace with global risks," he said.

Homeland Security is training local and state officials to respond to an agroterrorist attack, Runge said, but Brown said DHS is not doing enough. Agroterrorism is not one of its top priorities, and homeland security grants can't always be used to fight agroterrorism, Brown said.

Norwood, R-Augusta, touted UGA as the best location among 18 finalists for a proposed National Bio- and Agro-Defense Facility due to its proximity to other similar UGA facilities like the Richard B. Russell Research Center, as well as the CDC in Atlanta.

"The University of Georgia can and should be involved," he said.