The USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) announced plans to carry out new animal health activities using resources provided by the 2018 Farm Bill on Monday. The bill details a three-part program to comprehensively support animal disease prevention and management.
In addition to funding two new programs, the National Animal Vaccine and Veterinary Countermeasures Bank (vaccine bank) and the National Animal Disease Preparedness and Response Program (NADPRP), it also expands funding opportunities for the existing National Animal Health Laboratory Network (NAHLN).
“Animal health and well-being is the highest priority for American pig farmers,” Dustin Baker, National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) director of economics and domestic production issues, said when the
Farm Bill passed
. “Surveillance of foreign animal disease is more important now than ever in an ever-globalizing world. The U.S. pork industry is working with USDA to prevent African swine fever from entering our country, which is currently spreading throughout Asia and Europe.”
