Press Release

Jim Rogers	(202) 690-4755
Teresa Howes	(970) 494-7410

USDA Releases U.S. Animal Health Report

FORT COLLINS, Colo., Oct. 7, 2005– The U.S. Department of Agriculture today released the 2004 U.S. Animal Health Report, a national overview of domestic animal health in the United States, which is the first report of its kind.

The report addresses the many components of the U.S. animal health infrastructure, animal population demographics, new initiatives and approaches to foreign animal disease surveillance. As an annual publication, the 2004 report will be updated and refined each year, providing another venue to communicate with stakeholders and the public about APHIS programs.

The report is a direct result of an external review of the nation’s animal health safeguarding system. The animal health safeguarding review, which was released in November 2001, assessed the performance, processes and procedures used to ensure mission success for the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service; specifically it’s veterinary services program as well as industry partners. The mission: to protect and to improve the health, quality and marketability of the nation’s animals, animal products and veterinary biologics.

New animal-health initiatives highlighted in the 2004 U.S. Animal Health Report include:

The National Animal Identification System, tasked with coordinating the establishment of species-specific working groups, supporting the development of state premises systems and developing a national allocation database for premises identification numbers in order to develop a national tracking system for U.S. livestock.
The national surveillance unit--located within the Centers for Epidemiology and Animal Health--responsible for coordinating the development of the national animal health surveillance system.
The bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) enhanced surveillance plan, designed to augment USDA’s existing targeted surveillance efforts by strengthening surveillance in the high-risk cattle population.

The 2004 U.S. Animal Health Report can be found on the APHIS Web site at http://www.aphis.usda.gov/lpa/pubs/2004_us_animal_health_report.pdf.

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