The new National Biosecurity Resource Center for Animal Health Emergencies has been launched, according to Sandy Amass, DVM, new associate director of the Purdue University Homeland Security Institute.

The biosecurity center is a cooperative effort between the Purdue University Homeland Security Institute, the Purdue University School of Veterinary Medicine and the Indiana Board of Animal Health.

The biosecurity center’s mission is to provide information and tools to help government, commodity groups, veterinarians, producers and the public meet the challenges of animal health emergencies.

The center’s Web site (www.biosecuritycenter.org ) has received nearly 18,000 hits from 191 countries. The newly revised Web site continues to house the truck wash database for the National Pork Board’s Trucker Quality Assurance program, state regulations for carcass disposal and state regulations for animal disease reporting.

New on the Web site is a searchable database for information on disinfectants. The site will also house educational programs and informational papers on current animal health issues.

Community emergency management planners are urged to contact the site if interested in web-based data entry to store community resource information. The data would only be available to select local authorities.