The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), Veterinary Services division, released a draft of their Emerging Animal Disease Preparedness and Response Plan for public review and comment.
The plan outlines the processes that Veterinary Services will use to identify, evaluate, and respond to emerging animal diseases in the United States. The framework was developed as a method to address emerging animal diseases when limited research or knowledge of the disease is available.
Emerging animal diseases are unpredictable, and can have severe health and economic consequences to poultry and livestock. Such diseases are different from listed foreign animal diseases, which are recognized by the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) and reported when there is an occurrence. The plan cites the Schmallenberg virus in Europe and porcine epidemic diarrhea virus in the United States as examples of recent emerging animal diseases.
In the plan, Veterinary Services expresses their intention to involve a wide variety of animal health stakeholders, including animal agriculture groups, academic research institutions, and state and national animal health officials. All stakeholders are invited to comment on the draft plan, and all comments must be submitted via e-mail by November 1, 2016 to [email protected]. The Preparedness and Response Plan may be found here.
