Management of animal health emergencies in North America: prevention, preparedness, response and recovery.

Animal health emergency management (AHEM) is one of the most important issues confronting the world today and is the key to both food security (safety, quality, wholesomeness, affordability and abundance) and economic stability for many countries. Although the primary objective of emergency management in each of the countries of North America (Canada, Mexico and the United States of America [USA]) is implemented through individual AHEM systems, North America shares four common goals, as follows: preventing the introduction of foreign animal pathogens into North America being prepared to manage the outbreak of a foreign animal disease developing appropriate response strategies for control and eradication of disease taking active measures to recover from the animal health emergency in question. In the course of this paper, the authors provide an introduction to, and overview of, AHEM in North America. Furthermore, they outline the general infrastructure of prevention, preparedness, response and recovery strategies for Canada, Mexico and the USA. Finally, the authors discuss the future of AHEM in North America, concluding with a review of some of the joint activities currently being conducted with regard to AHEM.