Assessing the Vulnerability of U.S. Livestock to Agricultural Biological Terrorism

Geographers have helped identify how place, culture, and environment are critical components to better understanding the causes of terrorism and how to best respond. However, less attention has been focused on spatially explicit aspects of homeland security and the susceptibility of rural landscapes threatened by agricultural bioterrorism or naturally occurring crop and livestock diseases. This map uses data from the 2002 U.S. Census of Agriculture (USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service) to create a county-level assessment of vulnerability based on the spatial arrangement and importance of specific agricultural commodities. Vulnerability is defined by an additive model that incorporates measures of dominance and economic importance for a specific animal type within a county and regional diversity in livestock species.

Results show surprising regional- and state-level patterns of county vulnerability to livestock disease outbreaks that would not be apparent if such an assessment were based on statistical measures of production alone. Such an analysis should be helpful in preparedness planning and calling attention to the security concerns for our less populated places.

Courtesy of Department of Geography, Kansas State University.