U.S. Department of Agriculture Deputy Secretary James Moseley showed up at Kansas State University's Throckmorton Hall Friday (Oct. 17) to get a first-hand look at what national homeland security dollars are buying.

What he saw looks much like any other university lab - except for an array of electronics that ranges from a Web-connected digital microscope to banks of real-time monitors showing labs across the nation. It's part of a new National Plant Diagnostic Network (NPDN), developed by K-State Research and Extension systems engineers from their foundation work of connecting every Kansas county Extension office to the diagnostic labs on campus.

Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius is expected to view a demonstration later this month.

Moseley said protection of the nation's food supply must always be a priority because of its long-term, as well as its immediate impacts.

"With plants - while a problem may not spread rapidly - the concern is the ability to get your arms around it. Once it gets established, the long-term impact can be devastating," said Moseley, who is the No. 2 official at USDA behind Secretary of Agriculture Ann Veneman.

In four "fire drill" tests, the network has allowed scientists to go from the staged introduction of a new pest or pathogen in a crop to its confirmed identification in Washington, D.C., in less than 48 hours.

"Agricultural bioterrorism is unlikely to be immediately obvious. The county Extension agents out in the field may be the first to spot something and decide, ‘This looks funny.' The challenge is the time between ‘This looks funny' and the initiation of a response. The network is designed to shorten that gap," said Bob Zeigler, K-State plant pathologist and director of the Great Plains Diagnostic Network.

Other regional hubs in the national response system are at the University of California-Davis, Michigan State University, Cornell University and the University of Florida. They're connected to USDA's labs, as well as to every U.S. county Extension office, including those in far-flung Alaska, Hawaii, Guam and Puerto Rico. The system also is reaching out to include trained "first detectors" in agribusiness, crop consulting and the like.

"It's an unprecedented network," Moseley said.

"Agriculture is the soft underbelly of our economy. Surveillance and detection has to be distributed as well as our agriculture is," Zeigler said. "For most exotic pests, there are few diagnostic experts. [We needed] to bring the experts together – to dramatically improve the diagnostic capacity of the country. The system must run smoothly, efficiently and quickly."

Although vital as protection against bioterrorism, the network probably will more than pay for itself in helping quickly identify organisms accidentally introduced into the U.S. food production chain.

"Invasive species now cost the United States $100 billion annually. They have an impact on food safety and food security, as well as our international trade," the plant pathologist said. "They're a very real threat. Pest and pathogen introductions have actually changed history.

"The Irish potato famine is an example that changed both Ireland's history and our own. Before the 19th century, chestnut trees were 25 percent of the forest canopy east of the Mississippi, but the chestnuts are all gone now because of an introduced blight. Dutch elm disease changed America's urban landscape. The reason the English started drinking tea instead of coffee was because a rust disease introduced in Ceylon wiped out the coffee crop."

With invasive species, the problem is not if, but rather when they'll appear, he said.

K-State had already approached Kansas Sen. Pat Roberts with the idea of preparing to protect the food supply before Sept. 11, 2001, but the Homeland Security Act of 2002 brought the funding that made the idea a reality. Each regional center received a $900,000 startup grant.

Although the components of the network are already in place, the critical connections won't be fully operational until next spring, said Will Baldwin, the K-State systems engineer who led the software development team.

The encrypted software allows those in the network "to tell when a message has been sent, when it was received, whether or not it's been read and by whom," Baldwin said. Its security setup should help control rumors and create effective communications almost as well as it blocks hackers.

Other modules in the software will help the network build a national library of pest and pathogen photos, manage a diversity of lab setups, video conference, transfer microscopic images, serve as a local agricultural alert (much like the weather-alert system), simulate bioterrorism events, and connect to an array of "first detectors."

"And that's just the beginning," Baldwin said.

In addition to K-State, the Great Plains part of the network includes Colorado State University, Montana State University, the University of Nebraska, North Dakota State University, Oklahoma State University, South Dakota State University, Texas Tech University and the University of Wyoming.

That region includes 95 percent of the nation's sunflower acreage, 84 percent of its sorghum, 73 percent of the wheat, 55 percent of dry beans, 42 percent of U.S. cotton acres and 35 percent of sugar beets. It also has large acreages planted to corn, soybeans, potatoes, alfalfa, and canola/rape seed.

K-State plant pathologist Ned Tisserat will be the associate director in charge of the Great Plains network operations, aided by diagnostician Judy O'Mara. James Stack, formerly with the University of Nebraska, has joined the K-State staff to head the region's training efforts.

Local Extension Offices Have Role in Homeland Security

The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Cooperative Extension Service might seem an unlikely partner for homeland security.

That's not so.

"The national network reflects the wisdom of the investment in the land-grant system. Extension offices can reach out and touch every county in the United States to monitor agricultural health," said Bob Zeigler, head of Kansas State University's plant pathology department and director of the Great Plains Plant Diagnostic Center and Laboratory, which is based at K-State.

The regional center is one of five in United States that comprise the National Plant Diagnostic Network (NPDN).

The national network links plant pathologists and other diagnosticians who can identify potentially harmful infestations that could compromise the nation's food supply, environment, national security and economic health.

The system is based on a distance diagnosis concept that was developed to assist county Extension agents in the field to respond rapidly to agricultural concerns.

 "A county agent, agricultural producer or crop consultant who is in touch with the agent is likely to be the first to spot a plant that ‘looks a little funny,'" Zeigler said.

Having a secure communications system that links the agent and Extension systems can facilitate early identification and can speed an appropriate response to minimize potential threats and harmful effects, the plant pathologist said.

While developing a national network had been suggested before the push to increase homeland security, Zeigler said the time was right for the national network.

"The experts are located all over the country. It makes sense to bring them together (via the network) to determine the extent of a potential problem and initiate an appropriate response as quickly as possible," said Zeigler, who credited K-State systems engineer Will Baldwin and his team with developing the secure communications network.

For more information on Extension's role in homeland security, contact Zeigler at 785-532-6176.

K-State Research and Extension is a short name for the Kansas State University Agricultural Experiment Station and Cooperative Extension Service, a program designed to generate and distribute useful knowledge for the well-being of Kansans. Supported by county, state, federal and private funds, the program has county Extension offices, experiment fields, area Extension offices and regional research centers statewide. Its headquarters is on the K-State campus in Manhattan.