Early Warning System to Detect Emerging Disease Among NPPC's Comments to APHIS
USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) is in the process of developing a new strategic plan to guide the agency’s work over the next five years. The strategic plan framework is a summarized version of the draft plan and provides highlights including the mission and vision statements, core values, strategic goals and objectives, and trends or signals of change APHIS expects to influence the agency’s work in the future.
The National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) applauded APHIS for its foresight in framing future programs and activities around those trends that will drive American agriculture’s long-term productivity. NPPC submitted comments on the strategic plan framework.
Among other recommendations, NPPC suggested APHIS:
• Change the government’s grade levels for veterinarians to be more competitive with the private sector and help recent veterinary graduates with student loan debt.
• Include the animal agriculture industry in developing an early warning system to detect emerging and zoonotic diseases.
• Begin the regulatory process of increasing user fees to cover a shortfall in Customs and Border Protection staff needed to conduct inspections for agricultural contraband.
• Increase staff within its Veterinary Services to meet the growing need for negotiating new market access and maintaining existing markets and within its International Services to address sanitary and phytosanitary issues.
• Request additional resources for its Wildlife Services program to meet the growing threat of wildlife diseases.
• Recognize that farm animal welfare is best left to producers and their veterinarians, using the science-based standards of the National Pork Board’s Pork Quality Assurance Plus program.
NPPC also shared concerns about the ability of the National Veterinary Stockpile (NVS) to effectively have and deliver the tools needed to respond to an animal disease emergency.
"We encourage APHIS to request additional funding for the NVS to stockpile laboratory equipment, testing supplies, and diagnostic tests for foreign animal diseases and for equipment for large animal depopulation, disposal, and disinfection, which is sorely needed. The methods to request and deploy those supplies and equipment should be re-evaluated and streamlined as necessary to make those resources available quickly when needed," NPPC said in its comments.
APHIS expects to finalize and publish the new strategic plan later this summer and will post it on the APHIS website.
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