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Functional Exercise – Operation Vigilant Sample IV
(OVS IV), July 2015
• Led by CPT Bryon Marsh, 4
th
CST
• Participants included
- 4
th
and 48
th
NGB CSTs
- FL and GA State Dept. of Health, APHL
- DHS BioWatch
- Local first responders: Calhoun, Cherokee,
Cobb, and Dalton County Fire Depts.
- GA BioWatch Advisory Committee
- EPA and FBI Atlanta Field Offices
- Signature Science
21
Guardian Centers, Perry, GA
OVS IV Overview
• Conducted in real-time, using state response plans and local
responders
• Designed to help define a national exercise template for CST
Commanders
• Exercise components included
– Initial suspected threat event (putative
Yersinia pestis
)
– BioWatch Actionable Result (BAR)
– Phase I sampling
– Phase II sampling
• EPA approval obtained to use yeast (TERA)
• Sampling protocol based on CDC/NIOSH protocol
1
22
1
Surface sampling procedures for
Bacillus anthracis
spores from smooth, non-porous surfaces,
2012.
http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/topics/emres/surface-sampling-bacillus-anthracis.html