The Bio-protection Working Group

The goal of the Bio-protection Working Group is to develop and implement a North American bio-protection strategy to assess, prevent, protect, detect and respond to intentional or naturally occurring threats to public health and the food and agriculture system. Major efforts to achieve this are focused on:

• Undertaking joint threat and vulnerability assessments and exercises within the public health and the food and agriculture systems.
• Drafting and signing protocols for mutual assistance and coordination in a cross-border emergency.
• Sharing strategies for the stockpiling and distribution of human and animal countermeasures, such as vaccines.
• Working in a coordinated fashion to implement a regime to identify, assess and mitigate the risk of intentional threats to animals, plants and food products.
• Developing information-sharing agreements on enforcement activities and emergencies.
• Enhancing human, animal and plant health surveillance by developing interoperable systems to rapidly detect and monitor infectious diseases in those populations.
• Enhancing public health surveillance research by linking public health laboratories, as well as food and agriculture laboratory networks, within North America.

Better risk management implies identifying and reducing risks where they occur, before they have further consequences. By working together, authorities can concentrate their efforts on greater risks, while facilitating the movement of low-risk products and trade. The bio-protection strategy builds on existing programs and is consistent with each country's legislation. Under the strategy, Canada, the U.S. and Mexico use a common approach and jointly undertake threat and vulnerability assessments to manage food and agricultural systems. Better information among the countries contributes to better coordination of responses. Joint emergency simulations help to refine how the countries can work together.