When most people think about first responders, firefighters and EMTs usually come to mind.

What about when livestock are in danger? Today people trained for just that scenario.

A mixture of veterinarians, livestock producers and those associated with our nation’s beef industry listened intently at a hypothetical scenario involving plant and environmental toxins contained in livestock feed.

“We’ve got all the players at the table and now we can get together and do a quick response,” explains UA Associate Livestock Specialist Bob Kattnig. “This is the result of some livestock losses we’ve incurred in the last five or ten years and now we’re in position to respond better.”

Today, the attendees followed along in course guides at several different exercises designed to keep livestock losses at a minimum.

This conference is more than just a bunch of people sitting around with notebooks, because what they are learning today ultimately affects the consumer and what we eat.

Recent beef recalls combined with an international mad cow scare are just some of the incidents that have made their way to the public’s conscience.

UA Extension Veterinarian Peder Cuneo admits, “Although we have the safest food supply in the United States, and continue to have the safest food supply, it is potentially vulnerable and we have to protect that infrastructure.”

Ruben Fuentes, Fox 11 News

“So the big problem we have, as you probably know, we get different agencies together sometimes…we don’t operate really efficiently the first time around,” reveals Kattnig.

This is why they have gotten together, hoping to change that in order to keep everyone safe.

“If we’re not proactive and we’re not aware of the threats that are out there and try to take important steps to protect it,” explained Cuneo, “we’re not doing a good job of protecting America’s infrastructure and that’s agriculture.”

Arizona’s program leads the national in this type of response. Veterinarians associated with the conference say New Mexico has started a program similar to Arizona’s. Other states are now considering them as well.