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E-RAIL response trailer fleet growing

Michigan has expanded resources to help first responders with livestock accidents.

Michigan State University Extension’s Beth Ferry tells Brownfield the livestock industry wants to prepare first responders for potential accidents involving livestock as more animals travel across the state.

“When you do respond to an accident involving animals, you need different types of tools and equipment to be able to respond,” she explains.  “Firetrucks don’t carry containment equipment like fences on them, they don’t have sorting boards to move pigs or cattle.”

She says new funding from the state will deploy eight E-RAIL, or Emergency Response to Accidents Involving Livestock, response trailers throughout the state in addition to the three already in use.

Ferry says the cargo trailers go beyond training and educating first responders about how to work with livestock, putting tools and resources into their hands.

“We’ve had a lot of states contact us, we’ve had a lot of them asking how do you do this, and we’re helping with a lot of other states and organizations put their own programs together,” she shares.

The Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development provided nearly $600,000 in grant funding for the trailers.

Brownfield interviewed Ferry during the Michigan Pork Symposium in Lansing.

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