Curriculum provides guidance for cattle accidents on roads

Curriculum provides guidance for cattle accidents on roads

Several hundred thousand head of cattle are transported daily on U.S. roads. Public safety is always a concern when dealing with accidents involving animals. The first step in assuring public and human safety is training first responders on the correct procedures for addressing incidents involving the transportation of livestock.

Extension educators in North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Georgia and West Virginia developed the Bovine Emergency Response Plan (BERP) and teaching curriculum as a framework for emergency responders to more appropriately address accidents involving cattle transport vehicles.

Attendees of the BERP training sessions included farmers, ranchers, veterinarians, fire department staff, county emergency managers, law enforcement, ambulance, tow truck drivers and Extension agents. Participants completed a course survey to determine their knowledge before and after the program in the following areas: introduction and local emergency planning, transportation hazard, biosecurity, euthanasia and mortality issues, debriefing and safety and animal care and handling.

The surveys indicated BERP training helped 83% of participants learn how to mitigate an event and 80% shared the knowledge they learned with others.