WASHINGTON -- Ebola outbreaks. Mad cow disease. Now the huge effort to contain the highly contagious foot-and-mouth plague sweeping across England, infecting cattle, sheep and other cloven-hoofed animals.

These are a few of the biological battlegrounds here on Earth. But they also offer insight into future projects designed to bring to Earth samples from Mars, asteroids and comets.

NASA has had a long-standing effort underway in planetary protection.

Not only is there an effort to make sure Earth biology isnt clinging aboard spacecraft bound for such places as Mars. The space agency is also looking into ways to assure extraterrestrial samples dont introduce any virulent and deadly alien life into our planets biosphere.

Recent worries over the spread of mad cow and foot-and-mouth show how tough containment of diseases can be.

Mad cow disease bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) -- is thought to have originated from Britain, then moved to other spots in Europe. The disease was spurred by the use of diseased livestock ground up, then used in cattle feed. BSE-infected beef caused the death of nearly 100 people by the end of March.

While considered not deadly to humans, foot-and-mouth disease is easily spread via contaminated food, water and soil, or even through the air. Quarantine, slaughter and complete disposal of infected animals are prescribed as the way to curb the virus.

"When you are bringing things back from space, there's every reason to be cautious about it."

As Britain grapples with foot-and-mouth disease, the nations livestock industry is being severely crippled. Imports of used farm equipment from infected locales are banned here in the United States. Measures are also being taken at airports in the hopes of containing the disease within infected countries.

There are a number of lessons learned in how governments handle disease outbreaks and communicate these health issues to the public, said John Rummel, NASAs planetary protection officer here at the space agencys headquarters.

"Public appreciation of the issues associated with back contamination are heightened by these sorts of things," Rummel told SPACE.com. In terms of communications, the British government has already been criticized for mishandling the BSE problem, he said.

Recent blue-ribbon study groups of the National Research Council have helped the space agency flesh out planetary protection standards not only for Mars, but for Jupiters Europa, as well as different classes of asteroids and comets, Rummel said.

NASA itself has an ongoing series of studies on handling Mars samples. Groups of experts have focused on preventing uncontrolled release of Mars sample material into the terrestrial environment, ways to examine a Martian sample for evidence of live organisms and steps to determine if the sample poses any threat to terrestrial life forms and Earths biosphere.

This work is leading to a set of guidelines and protocols for returned-sample containment and quarantine analysis, said Margaret Race, an ecologist with the SETI Institute in Mountain View, California.

"When we are bringing things in from space, we are doing the same kind of interception. Not at the airport, but with the canister. It will be sealed up, totally contained and in maximum containment, even when we dont think theres a need for it," Race said. "When you are bringing things back, theres every reason to be cautious about it," she said.

Race has served on various NASA working groups looking at the issues of planetary protection. "In my opinion, NASA is doing a very credible and thoughtful job of it" and has adopted an open communication policy between the agency and the public, she said.

While foot-and-mouth and mad cow diseases are a "here-and-now problem," Race said, Mars return-sample remains a long way off. "Its not as pressing," she said.

Furthermore, between now and Mars return-sample time, strides in science and technology will enable scientists to better study Martian soil and rock. "We can do it now with what we have, but our ability to find things smaller and at lower doses will be better." Race said.

Progress is being made on blueprinting facilities capable of studying future extraterrestrial samples, said Jonathan Richmond, director of the Office of Health and Safety at the Center for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia.

Richmond also serves on a NASA working group looking into Mars sample protocols.

"Were going to need facilities that will both retain as much as possible the pristine conditions on Mars and, at the same time, maintain absolute maximum biocontainment," Richmond said.

"We are, right now, probably more capable of building good containment labs than we ever were in the past," Richmond said. "If we were to pick a time where wed want to be talking about the design and ultimately construction of such a lab, I think this is a perfect time," he said.

Richmond said the more we look on Earth, the more we detect life forms in niches once thought far too hostile. "In terms of doing any kind of biomedical work, we are clearly entering an era of where you can have higher levels of detection with smaller sample sizes," he said.

NASAs Rummel said that diseases are not the only biology that can wreak havoc. "Even species that are not pathogenic per se might not fit neatly into our environment," he said, such as the invasion of zebra mussels in the Great Lakes and the spread of the gypsy moth that destroys trees.

In regards to bringing back samples from space to Earth, Rummel said NASAs strategy "is very much consistent with doing all the right things."