National Veterinary Services have a wide range of regulatory and operational responsibilities as directed by their respective countries. These responsibilities could include animal health, animal welfare, food safety, zoonotic disease surveillance and control, import and export regulations, trade in livestock and livestock products, disaster management, and other functional areas (OIE 2017). In many cases veterinary services are resourced to meet minimal capability needed for animal health and trade. Therefore, veterinary services may lack the authorities and capacities to meet the unique requirements presented in disaster situations including NREs.

Disasters by definition are those events that exceed the normal capacity to respond at some level (Akshat 2017). Animals and animal-related issues are increasingly part of disaster management and risk reduction due to their economic, health, welfare, and social aspects (PETS ACT 2006). In addition to the livestock and food chain issues, National Veterinary Services may be called on to prepared for and respond to NREs in other special animal categories such as search and rescue animals, service animals, laboratory animals, zoo and aquatic exhibition animals, and wildlife.

Veterinary services are generally trained and experienced in dealing with biological animal disasters such at the incursion of a transboundary disease of economic importance to the livestock industry such as African swine fever or foot-and-mouth disease. However, there is less experience and capability to deal with non-biological disasters such as floods, drought, earthquakes, tornadoes, volcanic eruption, and extreme weather events. The foundation for National Veterinary Services in general, and disaster preparedness and response specifically is the legislative framework and authorities to perform specified functions. National legislation needs to be reviewed to ensure veterinary service disaster management and disaster risk reduction authorities are included. National disaster preparedness and contingency plans should address the animal health and welfare component and detail the roles and responsibilities of each department and ministry including the lead authority for each type of event. National Veterinary Services should use these documents to develop an all-hazards approach for their specific disaster preparedness contingency plans (AVMA 2012). Technological disasters such as chemical spills, toxic gas releases, and NREs present an even greater challenge since many veterinary services will not have authorities and capabilities established for these types of events (Vroegindewey 2014).

Global natural and climate disasters in 2017 affected over 95 million people with over 9600 deaths, costing over $335 billion dollars (US) (CRED 2017). Many if not most of these disasters have an animal component that requires veterinary response. The need for effective local, national, regional, and international capabilities is highlighted by the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–2030 (UNISDR 2015) that builds on the previous Hyogo Framework for Action 2005–2015 Building the Resilience of Nations and Communities to Disasters (UNISDR 2005). These two documents provide a framework for nations to build their own disaster preparedness, disaster contingency, and disaster risk reduction plans. Included in the Sendai framework are seven global targets:

  1. (i)

    To reduce mortality

  2. (ii)

    Reduce impacted individuals

  3. (iii)

    Reduce economic loss

  4. (iv)

    Reduce infrastructure damage and disruption of basics services

  5. (v)

    Increase national risk reduction strategies

  6. (vi)

    Enhance international cooperation

  7. (vii)

    Increase the availability and access to multi-hazard early warning systems and disaster risk information and assessments

In addition, there are four priorities for action including understanding disaster risk, strengthening disaster risk governance, investing in disaster risk reduction, and enhancing disaster preparedness. These targets and priorities for action can be used by intergovernmental organizations, governments, and National Veterinary Services as a roadmap toward building efficient and effective disaster management programs including those addressing NREs.

A study conducted by the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) in 2014 on the preparedness of National Veterinary Services to respond to natural disasters and bioterrorism demonstrated significant gaps in authorities and capabilities (Vroegindewey 2014). The study surveyed European and Western Asian countries’ National Veterinary Services with 48 responses out of 53 countries queried. There was a wide range of responses on national legislation and incorporation of animal-focused disaster management into National Disaster Response Plans. Twenty-one percent of the respondents indicated that no national legislation addressed animals in disasters. Sixty-six percent of the countries indicated the absence of guidelines, standards, handbooks, and references for dealing with disasters. While livestock was covered by 81% of the National Disaster Response Plans, there were fewer plans that covered companion animals (52%), zoo and aquatic exhibit animals (52%), and wildlife (42%). A review of the OIE list of Performance of Veterinary Services publicly published evaluations indicated only 4 of 27 National Veterinary Services had the highest level of residue surveillance programs including radionuclides and 17 of 27 had no or very limited capacity reported (OIE 2019). These numbers underscore the scope of work that veterinary services will need to accomplish to meet the needs of society in disaster scenarios including NREs. Many National Veterinary Services did not use guidelines for disaster preparedness and response despite the availability of numerous international publications and guidelines for National Veterinary Services to meet these disaster-focused operational requirements.

OIE has published general guidelines such as OIE Guidelines on Disaster Management and Risk Reduction in Relation to Animal Health and Welfare and Veterinary Public Health (OIE 2016). This guideline provides general principles for disaster management. The OIE Terrestrial Animal Health Code 2017 (OIE 2017) provides high-level guidance on legislative authorities and operational guidelines for animal disease incursions but limited information on disasters with the primary focus on mass depopulation and disposal of animals in natural disaster and disease situations. There are no specific references for NREs included. The United Nation Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) has published the Good Emergency Management Practice: The Essentials, a comprehensive guide for preparing for and responding to animal health emergencies (FAO 2011). This detailed guide focuses on animal health emergencies with an emphasis on Transboundary Animal Diseases (TAD). It can be used as a framework to develop veterinary service preparedness plans, contingency plans, operational plans, and standard operating procedures (SOP), which can be used to easily integrate the requirements of the existing IAEA standards on preparedness and response to NREs.

One area that has not been significantly addressed in standards and guidelines is the need for training in behavioral health resilience and providing medical and behavioral health support to responders before, during, and after the termination of the emergency phases of a disaster event.

Disaster risk management (DRM) has emerged as a focus in the international disaster management for identifying risk and risk analysis to prepare for, mitigate, and respond to disasters. FAO published a guideline disaster risk management systems analysis (FAO 2008) that details the process for DRM and provides a toolbox for development of protection strategies in line with IAEA requirements.

NREs such as Chernobyl, Fukushima Daiichi, Kyshtym, Windscale, and Three Mile Island illustrate the potential for radiological events that would require national veterinary service preparedness and response. The IAEA has published numerous requirements and guidelines that are relevant to the National Veterinary Services for NREs. The IAEA publication Joint Radiation Emergency Management Plan of the International Organizations provides (IAEA 2013) high-level national and regional guidance for management of NRE with specific functions and organizational links for information and support (IAEA 2002a). Food and food chain issues are addressed in this document.

The IAEA safety standards detail general requirements and specific guidelines which are applicable to veterinary service responders. IAEA safety standard Preparedness and Response for a Nuclear or Radiological Emergency GSR-7, 2015, outlines the general high-level requirements for preparing for and responding to NREs (IAEA 2015). This set of requirements include:

  • A framework for emergency preparedness and response

  • The lessons learned from past emergencies

  • An internally consistent foundation for the application of principles of and insights into radiation protection

  • A framework for developing an explanation of the criteria for the public and for public officials to address the risks of radiation exposure to human health and for a proportionate response

The IAEA General Safety Guide GSG-2, 2011, Criteria for Use in Preparedness and Response for a Nuclear or Radiological Emergency (IAEA 2011) provides a starting point for veterinary services to train personnel. The safety guide was cosponsored by FAO, the World Health Organization (WHO), the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), and the International Labour Office (ILO). The overall goal of GSG-2 is to “Present a coherent set of generic criteria that form a basis for developing the operational levels needed for decision making concerning protective actions and other response actions necessary to meet the emergency response objectives.”

In addition to the criteria, Operational Interventional Level (OIL) provides guidance for responders to take appropriate actions. The IAEA defines the OILs (IAEA 2017) as “A calculated level, measured by instruments in the field or determined by laboratory analysis, that corresponds to an intervention level or action level. OILs are typically expressed in terms of dose rates or of activity of radioactive material released, time integrated air concentration, ground or surface concentration or activity concentrations of radionuclides in environmental food or water samples. An OIL is a type of action level that is used immediately and directly (without further assessment) to determine the appropriate protective actions on the basis of an environmental measurement.”

OIL values for food, milk, and drinking water and associated actions provide a baseline for veterinary service decision-making in NREs (IAEA 2017). For example, at OIL 3 the criteria state:

If other food is available in the territories where OIL 3 is exceeded, stop consuming local produce (e.g., vegetables), milk from grazing animals and rainwater until they have been screened and declared safe. However, if restriction of consumption is likely to result in severe malnutrition or dehydration because replacement food, milk or water is not available, these items may be consumed for a short time until replacements are available.

These plain language criteria based on technical data provide National Veterinary Services with a defensible basis that can be used to explain the rationale for actions to be taken during a NRE.

The IAEA General Safety Guide GSG-11, 2018, Arrangements for the Termination of a Nuclear or Radiological Emergency (IAEA 2018b) provides guidelines that can be used by veterinary services to support operational response activities to assist in termination of the NRE. The document specifies that food, milk, and drinking water restrictions may continue after the termination of the NRE due to the continued risk to public health from products in the food chain and continued contamination to livestock, water, and foodstuffs. Monitoring will be required to ensure that agricultural products meet international trade standards. Comprehensive routine monitoring programs would be established until acceptable levels are achieved.

Codex Alimentarius has published the CODEX General Standard for Contaminants and Toxins in Food and Feed (CODEX STAN 193–1995) (CODEX 2015) that “lists the maximum levels and associated sampling plans of contaminants and natural toxicants in food and feed which are recommended by the CAC to be applied to commodities moving in international trade.” It also states that “This standard includes only maximum levels of contaminants and natural toxicants in feed in cases where the contaminant in feed can be transferred to food of animal origin and can be relevant for public health.” These guidelines are established for radionuclides in foods that are traded internationally for human consumption; however, the criteria can be applied in conjunction with a national standard which may be more restrictive (FAO-WHO 1989).

Guidelines and standards are critical to but not sufficient for effective NRE preparedness and response. National Veterinary Services need to integrate the requirements and recommendations of these standards. These requirements can be broken down into several organizational and operational components: legislation, leadership, organization, training, personnel, material, facilities, and finance.

Specific veterinary service contingency plans and standard operating procedures (SOP) for NREs should be developed and coordinated across government departments and ministries and be reflected in the regional and national plans.

Veterinary leadership at the national, departmental, and ministry level must be committed to the preparation for, and response to NREs. Effective preparedness and response plan would include the following:

  • Conducting NRE risk analysis

  • Understanding the unique aspects of NRE events

  • Understanding the role of the veterinary service in the context of national disaster management plans

  • Creating veterinary service contingency and operational plans

  • Building, training, and exercising a NRE-capable workforce

  • Acquiring required materials and facilities

  • Creating an appropriate organizational structure

  • Securing resources to accomplish these tasks

National Veterinary Services need to develop the organizational capacity to prepare for and respond to NREs. This includes developing the structures and personnel to work at the field level, veterinary headquarter levels, and national emergency operations/coordination center. Trained designated personnel should be available to direct the veterinary response, communicate with national and regional authorities, and communicate with the public and animal health stakeholders as well as intergovernmental organizations (IGO) such as IAEA, OIE, FAO, WHO, and other IGO entities. Stakeholders are any individual or group that has an interest in any decision or activity of an organization (ISO 2010). Specific units need to be identified as the lead for each of the functions required for preparedness and response. Veterinary service personnel need to be identified and trained to fill each contingency and operational plan role from field work to headquarters to national operation centers. Laboratory personnel need to be trained and available to accomplish required analysis that may be outside the normal scope of day-to-day testing.

Training and education are key components for National Veterinary Services personnel. While generally experienced in dealing with day-to-day animal health and welfare issues, many are not trained and experienced in dealing with technological disasters such as NREs. The OIE recommendation guideline Competency of Graduate Veterinarians (“Day 1 graduates”) to assure National Veterinary Services of Quality (OIE 2012) includes risk analysis as a competency but does not include competency in disaster management and disaster risk reduction nor specific competencies in NRE capabilities. Therefore, new graduates and veterinary personnel will need to be trained, educated, and assessed on their skills in this arena. The training should include all personnel with a designated task in NREs. This includes leadership, headquarters, field operations, laboratory, and other functional areas. The training can include technical training such as performing specific laboratory analysis for radionuclides in animal or food samples; use of dosimeters and monitoring devices; proper use of personal protective equipment (PPE); decontamination, destruction, and disposal of contaminated food and nonfood materials; as well as nontechnical operational requirements. Examples of these nontechnical skills are risk assessment, risk communications, team building, working in national emergency operation centers, developing NRE contingency plans and SOP, and similar operational and organizational skillsets. Training is accomplished at the individual level, team level, and the organizational level. Training should be tracked by individual and organization to ensure there is complete coverage, newly hired personnel are trained, and refresher training and recertification are accomplished. The effectiveness of the training should be validated through testing and exercising the response plans and modified to meet any training gaps that are identified.

Veterinary personnel will need to be hired, trained, and assessed through all levels of the organization for both day-to-day operations and emergency operations such as a NRE event. Backup and reserve personnel need to be identified for each function position. Critical positions should be identified and resourced. Prior experiences with NRE events such as the Japan Earthquake-Tsunami-Fukushima reactor NRE demonstrate that veterinary service personnel in the affected area may be part of the affected population and unable to effectively perform their assigned duties; therefore a backup system of trained personnel should be available (OIE 2019). Increased workload during a NRE event may require adding personnel to cover the expanded scope of the event, and these added personnel will also require refresher or just-in-time training and equipping. Additional personnel required can be established through bilateral and regional mutual support agreements, establishing and training a reserve veterinary force, coordinating with the military as part of Military Support to Civilian Operations, and contracting civilian personnel.

National Veterinary Services will need to identify and acquire the material needed to train for and respond to NREs. Some of these materials are not used daily and may require special purchasing, stockpiling, and maintaining with a logistical distribution plan. The specific types of items that may be required for a NRE include personal dosimeters, various types of in situ radiation monitoring devices, PPE, specialized radiation detection laboratory equipment, decontamination facilities, and other items. General emergency response materials will be required including communications equipment, computers, transportation assets, protective sheltering, animal handling equipment, and other general use items.

National Veterinary Services will need to identify and acquire facilities sufficient to conduct daily operations as well as contingency operations at the national, regional, and local level. Increased space may be required to meet the operational surge of response activity and may be pre-identified and contracted for before an event. Emergency operation centers, increased laboratory requirements, decontamination areas, and animal carcass disposal sites must be considered. Contingency plans should identify critical infrastructure requirements and where those activities would take place in case that facility is within an exclusion zone.

Resourcing for National Veterinary Services to execute daily and emergent operations can be a challenge. Requirements for material, personnel, facilities, and operational activities should be identified and brought to the national governmental level for legislative and funding support. Funding should be identified for compensation for livestock that may need to be depopulated. Even if this level of funding is unlikely to be committed ahead of a disaster having a NRE, the existence of operational requirements document will expedite the release of funds.

National Veterinary Services have multiple resources beyond these guidelines to meet their operational requirements for NREs. OIE has expanded its disaster focus beyond animal diseases to include all hazards and is incorporating disaster training into its operational mandate (OIE 2016). The WHO, OIE, and FAO have collaborated on sharing responsibilities and coordinating global activities to address health risks at the animal-human-ecosystems interfaces. The focus of this Tripartite Concept Note is with animal and zoonotic diseases, but these collaborative relationships can be built upon for other disasters including NREs (FAO-OIE-WHO 2010). The IAEA has launched a program to support National Veterinary Services (IAEA 2018a) to address multiple facets of NRE preparedness and response including:

  • Legislative/strategies

  • Containment and management of containment

  • Detection and differentiation

  • Development of guidelines (contingency plan)

  • Simulation exercise and sharing information

In addition, the Joint FAO/IAEA Programme of Nuclear Techniques in Food and Agriculture provides a concept of operations for notification and advisory information (IAEA 2019).

In 2005 the IAEA established the Incident and Emergency Centre (IEC – https://www.iaea.org/about/organizational-structure/department-of-nuclear-safety-and-security/incident-and-emergency-centre) which is the global focal point for international emergency preparedness, communication, and response to nuclear and radiological incidents and emergencies, regardless of whether they arise from accident, negligence, or deliberate act. It is the world’s center for the coordination of international emergency preparedness and response assistance. This center was created in response to the increase use of nuclear applications as well as emerging issues of the intentional malicious use of nuclear and radiological material. The IEC operates the IAEA Incident and Emergency System (IES). The IEC has four focus areas: IES Preparedness, IES Operation, Member State preparedness, and emergency communications and outreach. These last two focus areas could support National Veterinary Services to prepare for, and respond to NREs.

The IES includes training, emergency response exercising, and on-call capability. The IES activities are in compliance with the Convention on Early Notification of a Nuclear Accident (IAEA 2002b) and the Convention on Assistance in the Case of a Nuclear Accident or Radiological Emergency (IAEA 2002a), including operations of the IAEA Response and Assistance Network (RANET) and the ability to provide assistance mission upon request. They can assist Member States in developing their emergency preparedness and response framework and arrangements and provide safety standards and other technical guidance, education and training, and conducting Emergency Preparedness Reviews (EPREV missions). Specific guidance and advice are available for essential tasks such as public communication for NREs through different IAEA publications on public communication and provision of training on these topics.

National Veterinary Services have critical roles in the preparedness and response to NREs to protect public health through control of products of animal origin. Assessment of current NRE risks, authorities, and capabilities would be a starting point to identify needs to meet governmental and societal responsibilities. The complexity of NREs in regard to National Veterinary Services can be seen in these four major NREs. Using these models of NREs, National Veterinary Services can do an assessment of what roles and responsibilities they would need to fulfill to have an efficient and effective response to meet their designated requirements.

The Kyshtym NRE in the Urals of the USSR was not a nuclear power plant accident; it was a release of radionuclides from a storage tank due to the failure of a cooling system. In the early phase after the NRE, the major contributor to the dose to humans was the internal exposure from 144Ce and 95Zr largely from crops (Standring et al. 2009). The maximum concentration of 144Ce or 95Zr in agricultural products on land closest to source areas (up to 20 km) reached 10–10,000 kBq/kg. For milk, the key isotope contributing to internal dose was long-lived 90Sr and, to a much lesser extent, 137Cs.

The Windscale NRE occuredwhen there was a buildup of Wigner energy which led to a fire that released radionuclides into the atmosphere in the north of the UK. Milk from dairy cows grazing adjacent lowland areas was contaminated by short-lived 131I, and a limit was set for radioiodine in milk of 0.1 μCi/L (3700 Bq/L). Sheep grazing upland areas were also contaminated by 137Cs. Po-210 may also have contaminated animal tissues but received little attention at the time.

The Chernobyl NRE occurred during an experiment when there was a surge of power followed by two explosions. There was a release of radionuclides over a period of 10 days, and the fallout contaminated large areas of the terrestrial environment with a major impact on both agricultural animal production and extensive animal production on poor land and game animal harvesting largely from forests. The most severely affected areas within 100 km of the nuclear power plant in the USSR were Ukraine, Belarus, and the Russian Federation, but other areas of Eastern and Western Europe were also contaminated, especially where the passage of the contaminated fallout in the atmosphere coincided with heavy rainfall. Therefore, problems with animal products were widely experienced not only within the former Soviet Union but also in many other countries in Europe (USSR Ministry Agriculture 1977).

After the Fukushima Daiichi NRE in Japan there was a system failure that led to a loss of cooling capacity of the power plant and resulted in several releases of radionuclides due to venting and hydrogen explosions. These releases contributed to contamination of agricultural areas. A key difference in this event compared with the other NREs is that animal products were relatively less contaminated because most dairy and other livestock animals are housed indoors in Japan.

Numerous national, regional, and international guidelines and resources are available to support the strengthening of National Veterinary Services to prepare for and respond to all disasters and particularly the unique complex issues present with NREs. Understanding the requirements, planning and preparing, training, and exercising National Veterinary Service capabilities and capacities will better prepare National Veterinary Services to perform their role and responsibilities in NREs. This will support the protection of animal health and welfare and veterinary public health and maintain the economic viability of the animal sector.