Topeka ? If a terrorist were to infect a Kansas cow with foot-and-mouth disease it would devastate the cattle industry, wreck the state’s economy and probably overwhelm those in charge of dealing with the crisis, lawmakers were told Tuesday.

And the possibility of that calamity, according to some officials, is too real.

“I believe the foreign animal diseases are a real threat to our country, particularly to Kansas. That’s where one of our vulnerabilities really is. You would shut down our entire economy for 60, 90 days,” said Rep. Lee Tafanelli, an Ozawkie Republican who is the vice chairman of the Special Committee on Kansas Security.

Marty Vanier, program coordinator at the National Agricultural Biosecurity Center at Kansas State University, told legislators the state had a plan for responding to bioterrorism but that more training and simulated exercises were needed to increase readiness. And a few more bodies wouldn’t hurt, either.

“Frankly, there are just not enough of us in Kansas to manage this,” Vanier told the Special Committee on Kansas Security.

But several other committee members said the danger of foot-and-mouth was being overblown, creating a situation ripe for rumors that could create panics in the cattle market nearly as harmful as an actual but unlikely disease outbreak.

“Why would you hit a building in New York?” Sen. Larry Salmans, a Hanston Republican, said, referring to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack on the World Trade Center. “If you want to devastate an economy, this (spreading a rumor of foot-and-mouth) would be the simplest thing in the world.”

Vanier said once a Kansas occurrence of foot-and-mouth disease was confirmed, it would “instantly shut down all beef exports from the United States.”

But after questioning from Sen. Jim Barone, a Frontenac Democrat, Vanier backed off that statement, saying it would be up to agriculture officials in the various states to determine what to do.

KU gets grant to help prepare state for bioterrorist attack (10-21-003)Kansas Bioterrorism Program

Tafanelli said that was part of the problem — agricultural states, such as Kansas, were still developing policies for responding to bioterrorism, so it remains unclear how state officials might act should it happen.

Vanier said the biosecurity center and 130 emergency officials throughout the state ran a simulation in June of a terrorist spawned outbreak of foot-and-mouth in six counties — Barton, Finney, Ford, Grant, Nemaha and Thomas.

Given how contagious the disease is, the group determined 672,000 head of cattle would need to be destroyed over a six-day period.

In outbreaks, livestock with the disease and those exposed to it are destroyed to prevent the disease from spreading. Foot-and-mouth has about a 30 percent mortality rate among cattle, and cattle that survive it usually never recover to their former size and output, Vanier said.

“The burial of the carcasses of a feedlot population of 30,000 head of cattle would require a 31-foot deep pit the size of a football field,” the biosecurity center’s report on the simulation concluded.

According to the report, the simulation “was a successful first exercise” but showed that the state should improve its methods for quarantining animals, informing the public, controlling disease and working with the federal government to confirm diagnosis and restore losses to cattle producers.

But Salmans insisted the dangers of foot-and-mouth were being exaggerated. The disease poses no risk to humans, and the meat from an infected cow can still be eaten, he said.

The United States has been free of foot-and-mouth disease since 1929.