Wednesday, September 14th 2016
Emerging animal diseases such as West Nile virus, Schmallenberg virus in Europe and porcine epidemic diarrhea virus have the potential to negatively affect animal health, public health, and trade. In response, the Veterinary Services (VS) division at USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) presented its "Proposed Framework for Response to Emerging Animal Diseases in the United States” in 2014. This week, VS updated its efforts by releasing a new document titled “Emerging Animal Disease Preparedness and Response Plan.” The new document expands on the previous framework and describes the processes by which VS will identify, evaluate, and respond to emerging diseases in animal populations. Because of the unknown nature of emerging diseases, VS notes, defining a specific response plan is not possible. Some emerging disease will be reported after an acute impact in a limited number animals; some will be recognized only after a longer term impact on animal health or production. In response to these challenges, VS intends to use a collaborative approach to increase awareness of, detect, characterize, investigate, and respond to emerging disease threats as well as provide accurate information to all interested parties.