NPDN Response Exercise Scenarios:

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NPDN Response Exercise Scenarios  Communication
Processes and Protocols in the Event of an Exotic
Pest Detection

• Carrie L. Harmon, UF and Carla Thomas, UC Davis

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NPDN Exercise Committee

• Carla Thomas, Dick Hoenisch, WPDN
• Marietta Ryba-White, Jim Stack, Will Baldwin,
  GPDN
• Cassandra Bates, NCPDN
• Carrie Harmon, SPDN
• Eileen Luke, Mike Hill, NPDN
• Mike Stubbs, USDA

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NPDN Exercise Coordinators
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NPDN Exercise Committee Webpage
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Goals of NPDN exercises

• help all exercise participants (local, extension,
  state and federal) understand their roles and
  responsibilities, and how their efforts
  coordinate with those of the others while
  practicing standard operating procedures (SOPs)
  in a non-critical environment
• improve the SOPs by identifying and removing
  ambiguity in the protocols as well as gaps in the
  procedures

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Exercising?

• Sort of

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Exercises

• Pick a sport
• Assemble/join a team
• Stretch to minimize injuries
• Practice
• Cool down/stretch
• Repeat for success on Game Day

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The Teamkey participants involved in exercises

• Extension and other land grant university
  personnel
• State department of agriculture personnel
• Federal regulatory agency personnel

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The activity surrounding a plant pest event has
two principal aspects

1. rapid detection, diagnosis and notification of
   the pest occurrence, the primary role of the NPDN
2. response and regulatory action, which is the
   coordinated role of the State Plant Regulatory
   Official (SPRO) and the APHIS-PPQ State Plant
   Health Director (SPHD) in each state as mandated
   by regulatory statutes.

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DiseasePyramid
Karen Snover-Clift, Cornell University, NEPDN
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Communication Pyramid
Regulatory
Detection, Diagnosis, Response
TIME
NPDN labs
First Detector
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What kind of pests?

• Regulatory
• High-risk
• Select agents (pathogens)
• Anything important?

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The Pests of Concern This is where Joe Caveys
list of pests comes into the picture.
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The Detection Process
Stephen Brown, Lee County Extension
Southern Plant Diagnostic NetworkUniversity of
Florida
NPDN National Data Repository Purdue University
Richard Cullen, Diagnostician, UF/IFAS/SPDN PDC
This is where we hand it off to Gary Clement and
his team
Regulatory Agencies
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NPDN NotificationPresumptive Positive
National Program Administrator
Producer
CPHST NIS or SEL
First Detector
SPRO
APHIS Eastern or Western Region
NPDN Diagnostician (May be LGU Or SDA)
SPHD
NPDN National Program Leader (CSREES)
NPDN Regional Director
NPDN
State/Fed Regulatory
Carla Thomas, WPDN
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NPDN Communication Flow ChartConfirmation Results
First Detector
delayed
CPHST NIS or SEL
NPDN Diagnostician
National Program Administrator
(With SPRO, SPHD and First Detector)
NPDN Regional Director
Producer
APHIS Eastern Or Western Region
(if agreed by APHIS and State Dept of Ag)
NPDN National Program Leader (CSREES)
Other NPDN Regional Directors
Other NPDN labs for triage and surge support
SPHD
SPRO
Carla Thomas, WPDN
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An exercise is composed of three phases

1. a pre-exercise training session via conference
   call for all participants (choosing your sport,
   joining the team, and stretching)
2. the exercise scenario where participants use the
   NPDN exercise SOP (practice)
3. a post-exercise debriefing session via
   conference call to evaluate the exercise and the
   NPDN exercise SOP (cool-down and preparation for
   the Big Game)

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Choosing your sport

• EAB was the subject of an exercise in CT Feb 07,
  Sirex woodwasp in NJ July 06
• The original push for the exercises was for
  select agents, but now we need to concentrate on
  bringing entomologists into the picture, too (2
  of 42 since 2003).

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NPDN Pest of Concern Scenario

• The rules of the game, description of team
  members
• Copy in every NPDN lab
• Modified during exercises to suit the state,
  names and contact information added

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The NPDN SOP

• The National Plant Diagnostic Network Exercise
  Scenario trains relevant participants on how to
  manage secure communications during the initial
  discovery and confirmatory diagnosis of a plant
  pest event.
• The NPDN Standard Operating Procedure for APHIS
  Pests of Concern was the first of its kind to
  integrate chain of communication and chain of
  custody procedures from university extension,
  diagnostic labs at land grant universities and
  state departments of agriculture, federal
  confirming diagnostic labs, and state and federal
  department of agriculture response personnel.
• This SOP is a living document and undergoes
  revisions regularly on the basis of lessons
  learned during exercises and actual events.

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The Plant Diagnostics Information System the
playing field

• includes a secure website module for monitoring
  and documenting exercise activities. The website
  provides critical contact information for the
  participants, a copy of the SOP to be exercised,
  an activity log, goals and objectives of the
  exercise and the photo sheet file that is used as
  a plant sample. The exercise module has been
  used for all NPDN exercises conducted to date.

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Plant Diagnostic Information System www.pdis.org

• Goals and objectives of the exercise
• Exercise cast page w/ contacts
• Copy of the relevant SOP
• Photo file to use as a sample
• Activity log
• Exercise summary report

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Summary

• Practice may not make perfect, but it sure helps!
• There is a team of people, armed with online and
  printed materials, trained to conduct these
  exercises with you.
• We need to start more entomology exercises.
• Want one in your state? Contact me and I can
  direct you to the right regional coordinator
  clharmon_at_ufl.edu.

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Thank you!

• Carrie Lapaire Harmon
• Department of Plant Pathology, UF
• Regional Exercise Coordinator, NPDN
• CLHARMON_at_UFL.EDU