Tourist season renews foot-and-mouth fears

MAT-SU — An outbreak of foot and mouth disease (FMD) among herd animals in England and Scotland has Alaskan farmers and wildlife biologists on alert for ways to protect Alaskan animals from the highly contagious disease, which hasn't been reported on North American soil since 1929.

English and Scottish herds were previously FMD free as well and no one knows exactly how foot and mouth disease was carried to Great Britain. The disease can be spread by people, experts say it's as simple as stepping on infected soil or wiping your boots on the same floor mat as somebody who tracked dirt or manure from an infected area.

Alaska Division of Agriculture Director Robert Wells said outbreaks such as this are "one of the challenges of free trade and globalization . . . not only do we get to take advantage of the good things that [globalization] offers, but we have some challenges as well."

In other words Alaskans might be able to purchase fresh fruit from the Southern Hemisphere or have a replacement clutch for a tractor delivered in two days, but there are hassles that come along with those conveniences.

"Our biggest concern is tourists who might have come from infected areas," Wells said.

That's a concern also recognized by state game biologists at the Division of Wildlife Conservation.

Because all cloven-hoofed animals can be infected by FMD, biologists are concerned about Alaska's caribou herds and moose populations.

Matt Robus, deputy director of Wildlife Conservation, said the division has posted a traveler's alert, asking visitors from infected areas to stay away from wildlife, farms, and zoos for at least five days after arriving in Alaska.

The alert reads, in part: "Extra precautionary measures should be taken by people traveling from farms in infected locales to hunt or visit remote areas of Alaska."

The alert goes on to advise Alaskan hosts and guides to provide a fresh set of clothes for tourists after they arrive, and immediately launder the tourists' traveling clothes.

The alert also suggests that in-town activities be scheduled for the visitor's first five days in Alaska.

Robus said the division sent the alert to registered guides, many of whom are currently in the field for spring bear hunts.

"We had information put out and we asked the guides to forward the information on to their clients," Robus said. "There was an envelope-stuffing party."

Robus said that all non-resident aliens must have a guide for big-game hunts, but that the Alaska Department of Fish and Game has no way of knowing which guides are serving non-resident aliens until after license information and harvest tickets comes back from the guides.

State officials aren't just relying on their own education campaign, they also have the cooperation of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to keep the disease out.

Dave Huff is the port director for the USDA animal and plant health inspection service in Anchorage.

Huff oversees efforts to prevent animal and plant diseases from coming into the country via Ted Stevens International Airport and the Port of Anchorage.

"We've asked immigration to ask more questions," Huff said, explaining that instead of just asking about agriculture products, customs officers are being instructed to suss out whether people are coming from farm country in FMD-infected areas.

England and Scotland aren't alone on that list. FMD is known to be on every continent except North America and Antarctica.

Huff explained that USDA keeps track of places known as "FMD endemic" which means that the disease occurs there at low levels all the time.

He also said that USDA has personnel at every other international airport in the country.

"We are very attentive to food in people's luggage because that's just as dangerous as manure on their shoes," Huff said.

The outbreaks and subsequent slaughter of thousands of herd animals on Great Britain have made news not because FMD started in the British Isles, but because it managed to travel there from an endemic area.

Wells, in a letter to Alaskan farmers, raised some serious concerns about the FMD threat to Alaska.

Wells' letter said there have been reports of FMD infecting Great Britain's wild deer population.

That could create a "virus reservoir," Wells wrote, which would make Great Britain a permanently FMD- endemic island. Wells asked farmers to discourage nonessential visitors from visiting their farms.

But some farms, such as Musk Ox Farm in Palmer, don't have much of a choice when it comes to visitors. Musk Ox Farm's herd manager Nate Hamelink said tourists are the farm's bread and butter. Musk Ox Farm sells no meat products, and the musk ox wool is sold at cost.

The farm makes its operating money from gift shop sales, tickets and "the occasional grant," Hamelink said.

Since the farm depends on tourists, workers have constructed extra chutes around the fenced-in herd.

But the chutes aren't for corralling the musk oxen.

"It's been pretty cush for me this year, because we've got those tourists pretty well contained," Hamelink said, "and I haven't had any complaints from the herd."

Hamelink said Musk Ox Farm has been networking with zoos and farms around the country for techniques to keep FMD out. "We've got a foot and mouth file," he said. "It seems like everybody's developing one of those this year."

Hamelink said workers who tend the herd keep a change of work clothes on the farm and are separated from workers who come into contact with the tourists.

Musk Ox Farm executive director Tom Platt said he expects between 20,000 and 25,000 visitors to visit the attraction this summer.

Platt said visitors coming from places known to have FMD are being asked to schedule a visit to the farm only after five days in Alaska.

"We're going to ask them to come back later," Platt said.