In addition to the hands on tasks and testing, lectures were scheduled throughout the weekend. The lecture material covered communication skills and equipment, the incident command system, radiation, field sanitation, decontamination, crush and blast injuries, and the National Disaster Medical System policies and procedures. The VMAT may have come to the exercise as four individual teams, but the team members left the exercise as a cohesive disaster response force. Veterinary Medical Assistance Teams are the only veterinary disaster response force that is part of the Federal Response Plan. Such federal recognition of the need for animal care provided the framework for the AVMA to organize veterinary health professionals into Veterinary Medical Assistance Teams that could respond to the needs of animals during a disaster, in the same way that Disaster Medical Assistance Teams provide medical aid to human casualties of disasters.
Disaster preparedness is the only way to mitigate the effects of a disaster.
All veterinarians should have a personal and a business disaster plan in place. The VMAT are made possible through the generous support of The Iams Company, AVMA, AVMF, and other sponsors.