Hays ? The state’s livestock commissioner is warning cattlemen that their herds are possible targets for a terrorist attack.

Commissioner George Teagarden on Wednesday urged producers to be vigilant with their livestock, especially at markets and feedlots.

Foot-and-mouth disease is the biggest concern because of how quickly it spreads and how hard it is to stop, he said.

“On our radar scope, it’s the most contagious disease known to man,” Teagarden said of the disease.

He said Kansas livestock producers weren’t specifically listed as terror targets last week when the homeland security alert was raised to orange, but the warning did include livestock diseases as a possible terrorist tool.

“Producers should be watching for any unusual disease symptoms in the livestock, control access to their facilities and notify their veterinarian if any unusual disease symptoms are present,” he said.

The orange alert means the government believes there is a high risk of terrorist attacks. It’s the second-highest level on a five-level scale devised after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks on New York and Washington.

Teagarden said the nation had been on orange alert a couple of times before, but livestock generally was not mentioned.

This time, he said, there “seems to be the sense that livestock could be included as a potential target.”

There are other diseases that could be introduced to Kansas cattle herds, he said, but “foot-and-mouth is the gold standard for terrorist-type activity.”

He said it would be very easy for someone to infect a herd without being detected. The disease has an incubation period of two to five days, so by the time symptoms show up, whoever infected the herd would be long gone.

“The disease is so easy to transport that the likelihood of someone getting caught with it would be very slim,” he said. “The concern we have with livestock markets is that someone could spread the virus and expose different animals, and once those animals leave, they would spread it to other markets.”

Under the state’s emergency disease plan, a disease such as foot-and-mouth would be attacked aggressively. That means the infected herds would be killed, Teagarden said.

“If someone discovers foot-and-mouth, the markets will go way down, and we will lose all of our international trade,” he said.

All cloven-hoofed animals are susceptible to foot-and-mouth disease, he said. Kansas has 37,000 cow herds, and 480 licensed feedlots with at least 1,000 head of livestock.

Any producers who were forced to destroy their infected herds would be compensated for the animals at fair-market price under a U.S. Department of Agriculture indemnity fund.

Fair-market value would be determined by the previous day’s market prices, he said.