Category Archives: USDA

The U.S. Department of Agriculture today announced it is taking several additional actions to ensure the health and viability of the nation’s livestock and poultry.

When faced with the challenges of losing livestock to a natural disaster, producers have a new resource developed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), in partnership with FarmRaise, to help access available support.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) is awarding more than $22.2 million to enhance prevention, preparedness, early detection, and rapid response to the most damaging diseases that threaten U.S. livestock.

Due to upcoming maintenance on the Grants.gov site, the U.S Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) is extending the deadline for partners to submit applications to collaborate on the development of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) dashboards. Applicants now have until 11:59 p.m. EST on May 28, 2024 to submit applications.

On March 25, 2024, immediately following the first detection of H5N1 in dairy cattle in the Texas panhandle region, USDA and HHS began their work to understand the origin of the emergence and its potential impact in bovines and humans. USDA experts also took swift action to trace animal movements, began sampling to assess the disease prevalence in herds, and initiated a variety of testing activities to confirm the safety of the meat and milk supplies alongside federal partners. On April 1, 2024, Texas reported the first and only confirmed human H5N1 infection associated with this outbreak, after confirmation by CDC. On April 24, 2024, USDA issued a Federal Order, that took effect on April 29, to limit the movement of lactating dairy cattle and to collect and aggregate H5N1 test results to better understand the nature of the outbreak.

In 2021, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) National Animal Health Monitoring System, in collaboration with the USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service, conducted its sixth national study of U.S. large enterprise swine operations. Approximately 2,700 swine operations from 13 states, accounting for about 96 percent of U.S. swine operations with 1,000 or more pigs, were asked to participate.

Today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration took important steps to advance the FDA’s regulatory process for intentional genomic alterations (IGAs) in animals. The updated guidance documents underscore the agency’s commitment to further modernize its approach to evaluating and supporting the development of innovative animal and veterinary products to increase regulatory flexibility, predictability and efficiency. In addition, the agency established a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to clarify roles and responsibilities for regulation of IGAs in animals.

Food animal veterinarians are critical to maintaining a healthy, secure, and safe food supply. Today, there is a critical shortage of food animal veterinarians in both private and public practice, particularly in rural communities in the U.S. and insular areas. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) Veterinary Medicine Loan Repayment Program (VMLRP) provides approximately $9 million per year in funding to help eligible veterinarians offset a significant portion of debt incurred in pursuit of their veterinary medical degrees in return for their service in certain high-priority veterinary shortage situations.

Today, by amending and strengthening its animal disease traceability regulations for certain cattle and bison, the United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) is putting in place the technology, tools, and processes to help quickly pinpoint and respond to costly foreign animal diseases.

The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), is issuing this Federal Order to prevent the spread of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI). HPAI is a contagious viral disease of domestic poultry and wild birds. HPAI is deadly to domestic poultry and can wipe out entire flocks within a matter of days. HPAI is a threat to the poultry industry, animal health, human health, trade, and the economy worldwide. In the US, HPAI has now been detected in dairy cattle.