Should any California crops become bioterrorism targets, a new network of "first-detectors" -- who are now being trained by University of California Cooperative Extension -- will be ready to defend the food supply.
 
UC integrated pest management advisor Pete Goodell, one of the coordinators of the program, is training farmers, pest control advisers and others to keep a vigilant eye on food and fiber plants, and to be aware of when and how to go about reporting anything that seems amiss. The trained first-detectors will be registered and placed in a nationwide database.
 
Eventually, the government will be able to notify the first-detector network when intelligence points to specific bioterrorism threats on the nation's food supply. And, if a concern is detected in one part of the country, registered first-detectors elsewhere can be quickly asked to be on the lookout for the same symptoms or signs in their areas.
 
The first contact for first-detectors with questionable plant samples is UC Cooperative Extension.
 
"We will now be the frontline of bioterrorism defense, because this is the kind of thing UCCE has always done," Goodell said. "Farmers and ranchers come to Cooperative Extension with concerns about new problems. We are now formalizing a system to be well prepared in case of a deliberate pest introduction, or in what I think is the more likely event of an accidental pest introduction."
 
Although not confirmed, there have been accusations that biological warfare has targeted a country's food supply in the past.
 
"The Colorado potato beetle was supposedly introduced by the Germans into Britain during World War II," Goodell said. "Castro has accused the United States of introducing plant diseases into Cuba, and Florida has accused Cuba of releasing plant diseases in Florida."
 
The first-detectors are one component of the National Plant Diagnostic Network, a new program funded by the U. S. Department of Agriculture with monies authorized by the Homeland Security Act of 2002. NPDN and a sister program for detecting problems in livestock were established following the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
 
In the western region, the Western Plant Diagnostic Network is housed in the UC Davis Department of Plant Pathology and coordinated by the department chair, plant pathologist Rick Bostock, director, and Carla Thomas, deputy director.
 
"One of our first objectives was identifying key laboratories in the western region to be prepared to quickly and efficiently process samples that come from the field," Thomas said.
 
The three key laboratories are at the California Department of Food and Agriculture in partnership with UC Davis, serving California and, as needed, the part of the West that stretches from Idaho down through the Southwest to the Mexican border; Oregon State University, serving the Pacific Northwest and Alaska; and the University of Hawaii, serving Hawaii and the Pacific Territories, including Guam, Samoa and the Northern Mariana Islands. 
 
The next step is creating the vast network of farmers, pest control advisers, industry personal and government representatives to be the program's eyes and ears in the field.
 
The volunteer first-detectors will attend one two- to four-hour training session to be held over the next eight months to learn which particular pest and disease agents are of high concern and how to take an accurate sample and securely submit it to UC Cooperative Extension. UC Cooperative Extension will ensure the samples get to the appropriate UC diagnostic laboratory or to the diagnostic laboratory at California Department of Food and Agriculture.
 
The class will include exercises that let first-detectors practice finding a pest of high concern. The participants will also learn to use a secure online communication system, which involves a Web site protected with user name and password. When the registered first-detector receives an e-mail notification, he or she goes to the Web site for the secret communiqué. The western region office will track who visits the Web site to make sure those who haven't are contacted personally.

"We hope to have 500 first-detectors registered by June in the western region, and 1,200 or more trained by this time next year," Thomas said. 
 
Goodell, the California training coordinator, said he is pleased the program establishes an infrastructure for diagnosing new pest problems efficiently. 
 
"Due to budget cuts, our diagnostic capacity has been greatly diminished in the last five to 10 years.  This gives us the ability to reinvest in diagnosis programs," Goodell said. "It doesn't matter, from the program standpoint, if there is an accidental or intentional release. The invading species needs to be contained and eliminated as fast as possible."