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Jacob Hegeman
State
Liaison, APHIS
Legislative
and Public Affiars
202-720-6794
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Secretary Vilsack's National Animal Identification System (NAIS) Listening Tour has already made stops in seven cities, and now six additional locations have been added to provide a greater number of producers and stakeholders with the opportunity to participate in a live session. The additional cities and dates are: Location arrangements are still being finalized for these additional sessions. Details will be posted to www.usda.gov/nais/feedback as soon as they are available. The Secretary has personally attended 2 NAIS roundtable discussions—one in Washington, D.C. and the other in Fort Collins, CO. Leaders from APHIS’ Veterinary Services’ program have represented USDA at the other sessions. Attendance has ranged from about 60 to 125 people per location. The goal of the sessions is to hear from as many people as possible, and after each session, the transcripts are being shared with the Secretary. The sessions that have already taken place have provided valuable information for the Secretary to consider when making his decision about the future direction of NAIS. The Secretary is committed to making an informed decision and welcomes any and all feedback through the Web site and listening sessions. Written comments are being accepted from anyone who is unable to attend a session in person. A link to the comments page can be found at www.usda.gov/nais/feedback. Please take a moment to share your views—and don’t forget to encourage your local producers and stakeholders to do the same!
On May 27th, Animal Care (AC) began posting inspection reports for all animal breeders, dealers and brokers, exhibitors, and transporters to the APHIS Web site. This action represents a concerted effort by AC and APHIS as a whole to be more transparent about program activities. AC and APHIS’ Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Office receive approximately 850 requests annually for inspection reports from animal welfare organizations, Congressional offices, State officials and interested citizens. For the past several years, frequently requested inspection reports have been available online, but these reports represent only a fraction of AC’s overall inspection efforts. “Our goal all along has been to make every report available online,” said Dr. Chester Gipson, AC Deputy Administrator. “We know there is a high-level of interest in these reports and we want to make them easily accessible to our stakeholders.” Under the authority of the Animal Welfare Act (AWA), AC issues licenses and registers certain animal businesses and research facilities. All facilities regulated by AC undergo periodic unannounced inspections and the findings from those inspections, including the cleanliness of the facility, the level of veterinary care, the quality of housing structures and the facility’s records are all reviewed and documented in a report. If you are interested in viewing AC’s inspection reports, please go to www.aphis.usda.gov and click on “FOIA Reading Room” on the right-hand side of the page. From there, scroll down to the Animal Welfare heading and click on inspections.
As part of its mission to safeguard U.S. agriculture, APHIS’ Plant Protection and Quarantine (PPQ) Program was directed under Section 10201 of the 2008 Farm Bill to make available Commodity Credit Corporation Funds for a variety of new plant health programs, starting with $12 million in fiscal year (FY) 2009. These programs center on early plant pest detection and surveillance, threat identification and mitigation of plant pests and diseases, and technical assistance in the development and implementation of audit-based certification systems and nursery plant pest risk management systems. To provide structure in how the broad objectives of Section 10201 are achieved, PPQ has identified six goal areas that will be the focus of 10201 implementation over the
To ensure a wide range of viewpoints are reflected in the details of these goal areas, PPQ is preparing for a stakeholder meeting June 8-9 in Riverdale, MD to gain input from all interested parties. Ideas identified at this event will become part of the implementation plan for FY10 and subsequent years. The meeting will begin with a series of introductory sessions on each of the goal areas, but will spend most of the two days in break out sessions where participants will be able to discuss the goals and provide recommendations. The meeting will be structured to allow participants to take part in multiple breakouts over the course of the meeting.
Eradicating invasive forest pest infestations—such as the 2008 discovery of the Asian longhorned beetle (ALB) in Worcester, MA—is a major focus of APHIS’ Plant Protection and Quarantine (PPQ) Program. One of the primary fronts in this battle in recent years has been the recognition of the role firewood movement plays in spreading pests such as ALB and the Emerald Ash Borer (EAB) to new areas. While a seemingly simple problem, educating the diverse stakeholder groups—campers, firewood vendors, homeowners, and tree services—about the dangers that transporting firewood poses to our Nation’s forests, has proved to be a major undertaking. In an effort to provide these stakeholder groups with a comprehensive, up-to-date resource on issues relating to invasive forest pests and their transport on firewood, APHIS recently launched a new Web site to put all of this information in a single, easy to navigate Web site. Located on APHIS’ “Hot Issues” page, the “Invasive Species and Firewood” link takes visitors to a repository of information on invasive forest pests, quarantine maps, tips on how to safely obtain pest-free firewood, as well as links to State firewood regulations and information pages. The site also features a dedicated “firewood” email address that interested parties can use to send questions to PPQ staff. If you have related firewood information on your State’s Web site and would like it added to the APHIS site, please email firewood@aphis.usda.gov and a PPQ staff member will make sure that the information is uploaded. The Web site is available at:
A new version of the Veterinary Services Process Streamlining (VSPS) system is now available to accredited veterinarians, laboratories and State and federal regulatory officials. VSPS allows accredited veterinarians to create online Certificates of Veterinary Inspection (CVI) and laboratory specimen submission forms for equine infectious anemia (EIA). The system is free to all users. Veterinary Services (VS) updated the VSPS system based on customer feedback. With the new system, users can now:
VS will be offering VSPS Web-based training for accredited veterinarians on Friday, June 12 at 12 p.m. Eastern Time. To participate all that is needed is a phone and a computer with Internet access. Training participants will learn helpful and time-saving tips for navigating VSPS and how to take advantage of the systems many features. To register for the Webinar, email Kris Keller at kristin.d.keller@aphis.usda.gov. The VSPS staff hopes to make this Webinar a monthly occurrence. For more information about VSPS, contact Jamie Snow at 970-494-7330 or by email at jamie.l.snow@aphis.usda.gov.
When a new pest or disease strikes U.S. agriculture, a true understanding of the potential economic impacts is critical for determining APHIS’ response. Many economic analyses in use today, however, provide estimates that don’t hold up over time. For example, when soybean rust was first detected in the United States in 2004, some experts called it a $25 billion problem. While the threat is still significant, today we know that soybean rust won’t occur everywhere soybeans are planted, substantially lessening the economic impact of the disease. While the quality of APHIS’ economic analyses is high, the approaches within programs are not standardized and the lack of consistency creates challenges in using the results for decision making. APHIS’ Coordinating Office for Science and Technology Assessment (COSTA) recently completed a science review to evaluate the use of economic models to better inform APHIS’ decisions about responses to pest incursions. These types of models are already in use or in development for animal health issues, and there is potential to apply them to plant pest issues. COSTA was established by the Agency more than two years ago to coordinate science and technology issues that impact multiple APHIS programs. To address this issue, COSTA formed a panel of USDA experts to assess three selected models that could be used to predict the economic impact of animal and plant pest and disease incursions. The panel is also looking outside the Agency and has contracted with Virginia Tech to perform a literature review to identify other economic models that are in use today. In addition, both Veterinary Services and Wildlife Services have tools currently in use or under development and the panel will analyze those models. Understanding the economic implications of choosing between eradication and management programs or taking no action at all, is essential to arriving at optimal decisions. COSTA’s ultimate goal is to identify robust economic models that will allow APHIS programs to effectively determine the potential financial impacts of a pest or disease outbreak and maximize the economic benefits of program actions. For more information on COSTA or economic modeling, please contact Dr. Gordon Gordh, COSTA’s Chair, at 919-855-7409 or send him an email at gordon.gordh@aphis.usda.gov.
Name: How long have you worked at APHIS: Education: Priorities for the coming months: Last good book read: Favorite movie: Hobbies:
All Agency vacancies are posted on the APHIS Web site. To view the entire list of APHIS vacancies go to www.aphis.usda.gov. Under Related Topics click on Find a Job in APHIS. The positions highlighted below are for relevant positions that are at the GS-13 level and above. Position: Contract Specialist Position: Human Resources Specialist (Human Capital Management) Position: Emergency Program Specialist Position: Supervisory IT Specialist (Project Management) |
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