July 21, 2004

By Bennie Osburn

On June 28, John Baker, Larry Heider, Andy Maccabe, Senator Melcher and I met with Department of Homeland Security, Science and Technology representatives Deputy Secretary Penrose Albright, John Ellis, Beth Lautner and John Vitko to explore interest of DHS in supporting the 1433 initiative to address bioterrorism and agroterrorism. They explained that their interest at this time is focused on the two recent Centers funded by DHS and that the 1433 program was not something they are interested in funding. Further they indicated that DHS/USDA have all aspects of Foot and Mouth Disease covered. They indicated no interest in partnering with AAVMC for research or educational activities. It is interesting that they believe they can do this with only 26 total veterinary scientists in ARS, and that they see no need to connect with the hundreds of highly capable academic veterinary faculty scientists associated with AAVMC Colleges and Departments.