Kan., Okla. Plan Joint Livestock Disease Drill

Kansas and Oklahoma are preparing a joint exercise to test plans for responding to an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in livestock.

Officials said Thursday’s planned exercise would be the first conducted jointly by two states.

Plans called for stopping livestock trucks and certain other vehicles along U.S. 183 in the southwest Kansas town of Sitka, and along U.S. 83 in the Oklahoma Panhandle town of Turpin. Officers were to questioning the drivers briefly.

The exercise is designed to simulate conditions if either state ordered a halt in livestock transports to keep foot-and-mouth disease from spreading.

Officials said that with an actual outbreak, a state could order livestock haulers and others to turn back, or it could hold livestock for inspection.