By Jennifer Wilson, Amarillo Globe-News, Texas Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News
Mar. 27 - A national multimillion-dollar grant is helping America fight bioterrorism -- and Amarillo College has joined the battle.
AC was chosen last fall to take part in Texas CARES, a grant program run by the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. The program, funded by $459,000 in federal grant money from the Department of Homeland Security, develops bioterrorism training materials for medical professionals and students.
AC is the only community college in the state to participate in the program, said Danita McAnally, director of institutional effectiveness and advancement. She made the first contact with grant program officials.
The San Antonio university chose AC because it offers a variety of allied health programs, from dental hygiene to radiography, McAnally said. The program aims to integrate bioterrorism training into these courses.
"It becomes more amazing to me all the time," she said.
AC will not receive any funds from the grant, McAnally said, but Amarillo will benefit by working with bioterrorism experts from across the state and showcasing the city's expertise.
Jim Clements is developing bioterrorism curricula to use in his AC classes. He is director of fire and environmental programs.
A key part of this will be teaching individuals to work in an "incident command system" that organizes all the fire, health, emergency and law enforcement officials into a chain of command when disaster strikes, Clements said.
"Without it you just have chaos," Clements said.
Clements also is working with others from San Antonio, Dallas and Laredo -- cities also involved in the grant -- to develop a separate bioterrorism course that could be used in schools across the country. It's been a good opportunity to share knowledge with officials across the state, he said.
"Each one of us has their own area of extra expertise," Clements said.
AC isn't the only Amarillo entity involved. Officials from the city of Amarillo, local fire and law enforcement agencies and the Canyon office of the Texas Department of Health also are taking part.
And the more prepared these individuals are, the better, said Theresa West, who works with Amarillo's emergency management department.
"I honestly feel that the more educated our population is about response effort, it just makes all of our lives easier," West said. "It calms down the panic."
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© 2004, Amarillo Globe-News, Texas. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.
Reuters News Service BRUSSELS, Belgium - EU veterinary authorities have eased the bloc's blanket ban on poultry imports from Canada and the United States, imposed due to avian flu, to one region in each country, the European Commission said today.
"The current disease situation and available information now allow a reduction of the protective measures to a confined area," the Commission said in a statement.
"For the USA, the import restrictions are now limited to the state of Texas and for Canada to a part of the province of British Columbia," it added.
The vets' decision refers to the EU's ban in imports of live poultry, poultry meat and products and eggs from both countries.
For the United States, the narrower ban will apply until Aug. 23, and for Canada until Oct. 1. A large buffer zone will be set up in case of future outbreaks of the highly contagious disease.
An outbreak of a different strain of the highly contagious virus in Asia has caused at least 24 deaths and prompted the slaughter of tens of millions of fowl.
Vietnam has now said it has stamped out avian flu, after 16 people died from the disease. China has said the same.
Progress has been slower elsewhere in Asia. Thailand has not officially declared the epidemic over, while Indonesia said last week it hopes to declare itself disease-free "in a short time."
The EU is a major importer of hatching eggs from Canada.
It takes one-quarter of its annual egg imports from the United States, which is also a major poultry exporter to the EU.