By Stephen Smoot
After a year of battling avian influenza the poultry industry has welcomed a return to normalcy, but remains vigilant against bio threats from both nature and malevolent human beings.
To ensure that poultry producers remain updated on the latest threats to one of the Mountain State’s foremost industries, the West Virginia Poultry Association has invited Thomas Link to serve as speaker at a producer education program scheduled for 6 p.m. July 12 at the Oak Flat Ruritan Building.
Link serves as an intelligence officer for the United States Department of Homeland Security. He will speak on “threats to the U. S. food and agriculture sector” with an emphasis on poultry.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has a food and agriculture defense matrix team as part of its science and technology directorate. It “conducts and coordinates research, development, test, and evaluation on technologies, techniques, procedures, and capabilities necessary to protect U.S. food and agriculture.”
Threats can come from “agricultural pests and crop diseases; transboundary animal diseases, intentional or unintentional occurrences of food contamination or adulteration” as well as “biothreats which may present harm to animals or plants; and other high-consequence events that pose a risk to homeland security.”
Ward Malcolm, president of the West Virginia Poultry Association, explained that Link will speak about threats to agriculture security in West Virginia. He has, in the past, spoken to the board of the WVPA. Malcolm went on to describe the need to remain vigilant against threats from abroad, citing the extensive recent destruction of white elm and ash trees in West Virginia by invasive species.
The dinner serves as part of that organization’s Poultry Festival. Malcom emphasized that the event should not be thought of as only for Hardy County, but as a celebration of all in the region who contribute to the industry and prosperity.
Malcolm also discussed the regular occurrence of travelers coming into the United States who innocently bring foods across the border that harbor potentially destructive pests and plants.
The discussion comes as current events underscore the potential threats from abroad. In the past month, the United States Department of Justice has charged two suspicious travelers from Communist China carrying species potentially destructive to the U.S. wheat, corn, barley, and rice crops.
They claimed to be performing research at the University of Michigan, but have strong ties to the Chinese Communist Party. The CCP engages in active operations against the United States and other countries.
