The county of Viersen is located in NRW, not far from the border with the Netherlands. The foot-and-mouth-disease first broke out in Great Britain on February 20th, 2001. The disease’s progress left its marks. Consequently, the County of Viersen prepared for the threat of the foot-and-mouth-disease : an alerting concept was drafted, alert phases were defined, and checklists were created for control stations.

The Fire Department also prepared for the threat of the foot-and-mouth-disease : disinfection sluices were built and set-up, arrangements were made with the German Federal Agency for Technical Relief (THW) and with the veterinary department.

The county’s administrative centre was created in the fire station in Viersen. Since March 2003, the Netherlands were hit by Avian Influenca. 30 million animals had to be killed, the equivalent of a third of the whole poultry population of the Netherlands. Immediate damage was about 280 mio €. Consequential damage included, the amount reached around 500 mio €.

Mid April 2003, the disease broke out near the Dutch border. On April 14th, the county of Viersen’s control station was notified of the avian influenca by the Dutch fire departments. On April 15th, the towns closest to the border, Brüggen and Niederkrüchten, were declared restricted areas. All poultry in the Dutch “buffer area“ was killed.

On May 7th, 2003, there was a veterinary examination of the avian population. This led to to the activation of the crisis management group on May 8th.

The crisis team was composed of : a district veterinary officer, the local authority’s veterinary board, a press officer, a town council representative, a representative of the police force and the county’s fire chief.

The following measures were taken :

• within a radius of 1 km, the poultry was killed,
• within a radius of 3 km, the poultry was killed as instructed by the EU commission,
• within a radius of 10 km, the poultry was observed : dung, liquid manure, animal feed, litter, …

On May 9th, 2003, the THW and the fire departments were assigned. Two decontamination tents were installed for the veterinary board’s action forces and three decontamination sluices were installed for traffic.

For the media, a temporary press office was created outside the administrative centre. Cooperating with the press was one of the fire department’s role. The cooperation with organizations such as the German Red Cross and other authorities at different levels can be described as excellent in this mission !