+----------------+-----------------------------------------------------+
| ﻿               | **United States Department of Agriculture**         |
|                |                                                     |
| ![](medi       | **Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service**      |
| a/image1.png){ |                                                     |
| width="0.99861 | **Strategic Plan (2007 -- 2012)**                   |
| 11111111111in" |                                                     |
| he             | **Revised July 27, 2007**                           |
| ight="0.696527 |                                                     |
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| ![](media/im   |                                                     |
| age2.jpeg){wid |                                                     |
| th="0.98125in" |                                                     |
| he             |                                                     |
| ight="1.102777 |                                                     |
| 7777777779in"} |                                                     |
+----------------+-----------------------------------------------------+

Message from the APHIS Management Team

This updated APHIS Strategic Plan reflects APHIS' changing roles in
changing times but keeps us focused on the critical mission of
safeguarding animal, plant and natural resources and enhancing animal
well-being.

U.S. Agriculture is always in a state of change---that is what has kept
this sector so viable and vital to the U.S. economy and citizens.
Managing change requires special attention from all of us who work in
and with the agriculture sector. It cannot be business as usual.

These are times of challenge throughout the Federal Government. Many
Departments and Agencies have learned critical lessons over the past few
years during Homeland Security crises, natural disasters, performance
audits, and periods of increased scrutiny in all manners of media. The
most important lessons almost always include making jurisdictional lines
flexible and moving past traditional, "we always do it that way,"
answers.

Departments, Agencies and Programs need to respond and work together on
issues that impact the health and safety of America and her citizens and
allies. In today's world, States, tribes, and industry groups play a
much bigger role in managing issues with us. Without good collaboration,
APHIS would not be able to accomplish the things it does.

The one thing, though, that remains unchanged all these years is the
dedication and professionalism of our APHIS workforce. As the management
team, we are always mindful of the great work performed daily by each
one of our employees, and making good investments in our employees makes
sense. This strategic plan charts the course for the Agency over the
next 5 years. Changes will come and new work will have to be done, but
we are confident that APHIS employees, with our appropriate support and
guidance, are up to the task and that it will always be a great day to
work for APHIS!

[Introduction 1](#__RefHeading___Toc157585300)

[Key Challenges 5](#section)

[Strategic APHIS Priorities 7](#strategic-aphis-priorities)

[Mission Priorities 7](#mission-priorities)

[Organizational Priorities 12](#organizational-priorities)

**Conclusion..........................................................14**

[]{#__RefHeading___Toc157585300 .anchor}**Introduction**

Our vision is:

The mission of the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS)
is:

These are the principles we strive to follow as we do our work. These
are all equally important to us as an agency and are listed in
alphabetical order.

APHIS guards against the introduction, reemergence or spread of animal
and plant pests and diseases that could limit production and/or damage
export markets. As part of this protection focus, APHIS monitors for and
responds to emergencies of varying types and scopes.

We also respond to conflicts between humans and wildlife, address trade
barriers related to animal and plant health (commonly known as Sanitary
and Phytosanitary (SPS) issues), promote the humane treatment of animals
covered by the Animal Welfare Act (AWA) and Horse Protection Act (HPA),
and ensure that biotechnology-derived agricultural products are safe and
that pests are not released into the environment.

![](media/image3.jpeg){width="4.824305555555555in"
height="6.047916666666667in"}

**Figure 1: The APHIS umbrella of protection**

Taken together, we view these safeguards as an umbrella of protection.
See Figure 1. APHIS and its partners protect agricultural and natural
resources against these threats:

-   Agricultural animal and plant health threats

-   Zoonotic diseases

-   Invasive species

-   Wildlife conflicts and diseases

-   Non-compliant biotechnology events

-   Sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) trade barriers

-   Inhumane treatment of animals covered by the AWA and the HPA

-   Agricultural bioterrorism

Our partners include:

-   Federal agencies

-   State agencies

-   Tribal governments

-   Local governments

-   Foreign governments

-   Congress

-   Industry organizations

-   Other agricultural interests

-   Colleges and universities

-   International and domestic non-governmental organizations, including
    professional and scientific societies

-   The U.S. public

Resources we protect include:

-   Agricultural animals and plants

-   Agricultural production, interstate commerce, and international
    exports

-   Ecosystems and natural resources

-   Human health and safety

-   Animal welfare

As of January 2007, APHIS employed more than 8,500 people with a wide
range of scientific, technical, and administrative skills who work in
all 50 states, several territories and more than 30 countries. The
workforce is organized into two staffs reporting to the Office of the
Administrator, six operational program units, and three support units.

**Figure 2: APHIS Organizational Chart**

APHIS will spend approximately \$1.4 billion in 2007 to carry out our
mission. While the bulk of our funding comes from Congressional
appropriations, APHIS also receives funding through user fees,
cooperative service agreements, emergency transfers from the Commodity
Credit Corporation (CCC), and international trust fund arrangements.

APHIS carries out its mission activities under the provisions of
specific Federal laws. Several recent acts of Congress, including the
*Plant Protection Act* *(2000)*, the *Animal Health Protection Act
(2002),* the *Public Health Security and Bioterrorism Preparedness Act
(2002),* and the *Pet Evacuation and Transportation Standards Act
(2006)* have refined and expanded the scope of the APHIS mission.

As part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, APHIS developed this plan
to be consistent with the latest USDA Strategic Plan (for 2005 to 2010),
which you can see at
<http://www.ocfo.usda.gov/usdasp/sp2005/sp2005.pdf>. The priorities
outlined in this APHIS plan support the following USDA strategic goals,
objectives and management initiatives:

-   **Strategic Goal 1:** *Enhance International Competitiveness of
    American Agriculture*: particularly Objective 1.3: *Improved
    Sanitary And Phytosanitary (SPS) System To Facilitate Agricultural
    Trade*

-   **Strategic Goal 4:** *Enhance Protection and Safety of the Nation's
    Agriculture and Food Supply*: particularly Objective 4.2: *Reduce
    The Number And Severity Of Agricultural Pest And Disease Outbreaks*

-   **Management Initiatives:** These are specific plans to support the
    President's Management Agenda, which includes:

    -   Strategic Management of Human Capital

    -   Budget and Performance Integration

    -   Competitive Sourcing

    -   Expanded Electronic Government

    -   Improved Financial Performance

#  {#section .unnumbered}

# Key Challenges 

![](media/image4.jpeg){width="7.34375in" height="3.5in"}**To prepare to
respond to a wider range of emergencies**: APHIS is expected to lead
emergency response efforts related to animal and plant pest and disease
outbreaks, as well as animal and plant health aspects of natural
disasters and bioterrorism attacks. APHIS is also expected to support a
wide range of other emergency response efforts. These responsibilities
are part of several presidential directives and the *National Response
Plan (NRP).* Figure 3 below shows the additional kinds of emergencies
that APHIS has been called upon to respond to since 2001.

**Figure 3: Expansion of APHIS emergency responses since 2001**

**To maintain our safeguarding system:** Globalization and free trade
place great pressure on our protection system. The increased movement of
goods increases the risk of introduction of exotic invasive species.
This increasing risk of introductions puts greater strain on our
detection system. As biotechnology-derived products become more common
worldwide, developing protocols for exports and regulations for imports
becomes increasingly important.

**To maintain and expand U.S. agricultural exports**: Issues relating to
the spread of animal and plant pests and disease are called sanitary
(animal health) and phytosanitary (plant health) or SPS issues. These
issues are prominent, complex, and visible factors affecting U.S. trade
relationships especially in opening and maintaining markets for U.S.
exports including biotechnology-derived products. Since much of the
Federal technical expertise in SPS issues resides in our Agency, APHIS
participates in resolving these regulatory difficulties. We strive to
work with the lead U.S. trade agencies without compromising or blurring
our scientific and regulatory mission.

**To increase collaboration**: Because the American public expects a
single face of government, APHIS must be more cohesive internally and
more collaborative externally with other Federal agencies. We need to
extend that collaborative approach with partners in state, local, tribal
and foreign governments. The American public needs to have confidence
that APHIS collaborates with internationally recognized scientists and
expects us to seek scientific advice and expertise from universities and
professional associations when we need it. In addition, our work
increasingly intersects with other new partners such as public health
officials (for example, in our work on Avian Influenza and Bovine
Spongiform Encephalopathy).

**To be more transparent to our partners and stakeholders**: To be more
collaborative and to strengthen the public's trust in our work, we need
to be increasingly transparent with our partners and stakeholders about
what we do, how we do it and why we think it is the best way. In
addition, APHIS and our programs are under more scrutiny from the media
and oversight organizations such as the Office of Inspector General
(OIG) and the Government Accountability Office (GAO). Congress adds to
this scrutiny as it asks questions as part of its oversight of the
Executive Branch. As issues are raised and examined, it is increasingly
important for APHIS to make the best information available to our
employees, partners, and those providing oversight. In our communication
especially with the media and the public it is important that we
appropriately characterize the risks we manage. If we give too much
emphasis, individuals may over react; too little emphasis and
individuals may not take the risks seriously.

**To recruit and maintain a skilled workforce**: We recognize that
others inside and outside of the Federal Government, including some of
our partners, compete with us for our workforce. Given this fact, we
need to recruit workers who are not only scientifically and technically
competent, but who can work in a collaborative environment and in line
with our organizational values. Once they are hired we need to retain
them as we help them keep their skills updated.

**To set priorities on the use of available resources:** We expect to
see limited growth in our budget over the next several years, while
still needing to maintain our current mission and fulfill new
responsibilities. An example of this is the increasing expectation for
APHIS employees to respond to a broader array of emergencies while still
accomplishing a full slate of routine but important work. The lack of
expanded resources, coupled with these new responsibilities, means APHIS
must set clear work priorities.

# Strategic APHIS Priorities

**Mission Priorities:**

-   Strengthen our safeguarding system domestically and in other
    countries

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-   Strengthen emergency response preparedness

-   Facilitate safe agricultural trade through international standard
    setting and effective management of sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS)
    issues

-   Enhance the well-being of animals covered by the Animal Welfare Act
    (AWA) and the Horse Protection Act (HPA)

**Organizational Priorities**

-   Value and invest in APHIS employees

-   Accomplish our mission through effective and efficient management of
    our programs.

## Mission Priorities

**Mission Priority 1: Strengthen our safeguarding system domestically
and in other countries**

APHIS protects agricultural and natural resources in three general
ways: 1) working with other countries to reduce risk *before* threats
approach our borders, 2) working with the Department of Homeland
Security (DHS) to reduce pest and disease threats *at* our borders, and
3) working with our partners to detect introduced and emerging pests
that have entered *through* our borders. While reducing pest and disease
threats at our borders continues to be important, APHIS is focusing on
strengthening our detection and management efforts domestically and in
other countries.

Domestically, APHIS works to strengthen our surveillance and detection
systems. Rapid detection is crucial to quick and effective response to
introduced or emerging pests and diseases. Rapid detection also requires
broad and targeted surveillance followed by quick identification and
risk assessment of the potential pest or disease threat. While APHIS has
long relied on State counterparts as partners in surveillance and
detection, we are expanding on those partnerships to include tribal
governments, industry personnel and other stakeholders. APHIS will
continue to expand our diagnostic capability through animal and plant
laboratory networks with state and university personnel. We also look
for new and better ways to survey for and detect animal and plant pests
and diseases based on the best available scientific findings and
research.

In addition, APHIS works with counterparts in other countries to target
our resources on projects that will yield the most protection for U.S.
resources, since helping those countries build capacity for their own
systems of agricultural and natural resource protection provides greater
protection for the United States These efforts include pest and disease
surveillance and detection, collecting information to identify and
assess risks, conducting threat assessments, mitigating risks, and
accrediting other countries' systems (such as those for certifying and
issuing permits for moving products including those coming to the United
States). These international capacity building projects accomplish two
goals: 1) build capacity to address key animal and plant health and
natural resource issues for the other country and 2) protect the United
States from dangerous pests and diseases. These efforts mean we will
share many of our scientific and technical capabilities: plant health,
livestock and wildlife health, wildlife damage management, and
assessment of risks related to development of transgenic plants and
animals.

As we expand our partnerships, we need to ensure that everyone
understands that achieving *zero* risk is impossible, given the
realities of trade and travel today. Instead, we need to ensure that
everyone accepts our policy of *managing* risk. With the increasing
global movement of products and people, APHIS works to mitigate rather
than eliminate risks. This means we need enough employees and partners
with the appropriate skills to adequately assess risk. Also, our risk
assessment protocols must recognize the growing importance of zoonotic
diseases and the need for working with public health counterparts to
reduce these human health risks by monitoring and controlling these
diseases in animals, including wildlife.

The highly pathogenic avian influenza (AI) program is a good example of
these efforts. APHIS is working overseas to build capacity for detecting
AI, including reservoirs of disease in wildlife. This work provides
vital scientific information about the existence and spread of the
disease. At the same time we are working on ways to improve our
detection system that include expanded partnerships, increased
laboratory capability, increased wildlife surveillance and greater focus
on certain pathways such as smuggling.

APHIS is also responsible for the safe development and release of
genetically engineered plants (in partnership with the FDA and EPA). We
are updating our regulations for genetically engineered plants and
developing a framework for regulating genetically engineered animals to
address advances and risks associated with this technology.

**Mission Priority 2: Strengthen Emergency Response Preparedness**

Increasing pressures on U.S. agricultural resources from threats of new
or emerging pests and diseases (for example, highly pathogenic avian
influenza), natural disasters like Hurricane Katrina, and
agro-terrorism, reinforce the need to strengthen our capacity to prepare
for and respond to emergencies.

Safeguarding the health of animals, plants, and ecosystems involves
activities, expertise, and plans that extend beyond the scope of even 5
years ago. Under the *National Response Plan*, APHIS is expected to play
a significant role in a wide variety of emergency incidents including
"all hazards" emergencies (i.e. those unrelated to outbreaks of pests
and diseases threatening agricultural production). Under the *Pets
Evacuation and Transportation Standards Act,* APHIS is integral to
helping States and tribes develop and implement emergency plans that
include evacuation and sheltering of pets and service animals. These
examples underscore the importance of developing a strong emergency
planning and response infrastructure. They require new thinking about
the types of emergencies APHIS must address, including emerging
agricultural biotechnology issues, natural disasters, acts of
bioterrorism and radiological disasters.

One key to effective response is a strong network of people trained and
prepared to respond to any of these emergencies. These include other
people from USDA, other Federal Agencies, State, local and tribal
government personnel, and other stakeholders, as part of the *NRP*.
Defining appropriate roles and responsibilities as part of these
Federal, State and Local networks is vital. Aligning our plans with
other Federal, State, Local and Tribal plans is crucial for overall
success.

Internally, APHIS will refine and improve our policies and coordination
of all emergency preparation and response through our multidisciplinary
Emergency Management Leadership Council (EMLC). The EMLC's Agricultural
and Homeland Security Emergency Response Integration Plan will bolster
our ability to respond to the increased expectations of our
stakeholders, other cooperators, Congress, and the general public for
managing emergencies effectively and efficiently.

Another important part of this priority is the ability of APHIS
officials and our partners to do adequate epidemiology and trace the
origin of animal disease outbreaks including those that can be
transmitted to humans (zoonotic diseases). We are working with our
stakeholders to develop a voluntary animal identification program to
enhance responses to highly contagious diseases. When fully implemented,
it will include 48-hour traceback capability accessible to agricultural
animal health officials.

**Mission Priority 3: Facilitate safe agricultural trade through
effective management of sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) issues:**

APHIS recognizes the interdependency of our protection and trade
priorities. Protection of U.S. agricultural and natural resources
ensures safe agricultural trade and safe trade ensures the protection of
U.S. agricultural and natural resources. As long as protection
principles are technically sound and consistently applied, safeguarding
the health of animals, plants, and ecosystems makes safe agricultural
trade possible. Protection principles, however, cannot be perceived as
barriers to trade.

Increasingly animal health (sanitary) issues and plant health
(phytosanitary) issues rise to the forefront of trade negotiations and
present challenges to countries importing and exporting agricultural
commodities. APHIS plays a key role in managing these issues to ensure
safety and fairness for U.S. agricultural imports and exports.

APHIS contributes to the resolution of trade problems and helps
capitalize on opportunities for U.S. exporters by bringing our expertise
and scientific knowledge to bear on the technical aspects of these
issues. This includes negotiating scientific import criteria and
articulating our regulatory policies and principles to trading partners.
APHIS works with key partners like Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) to
manage SPS issues.

APHIS participates vigorously in international standard setting
organizations like International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC),
World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE), and the CODEX Alimentarius
Commission. Relying on our experience and technical knowledge, we work
with foreign governments to develop and promote the use of international
standards that are science-based, fair and practical. International
standards are critical in efforts to open markets for exports.

APHIS also helps other countries work with these standards by sharing
knowledge and expertise through international capacity building
activities. When there are transparent and consistent standards globally
and countries have the ability to work within the standards, SPS issues
are managed fairly and protection and trade responsibilities are met by
all parties. Both international standard setting and international
capacity building are critical to long term management of SPS issues and
expanding agricultural trade opportunities..

APHIS works on a daily basis to resolve immediate SPS issues. As an
example, requests by other countries to import specific agricultural
commodities are growing. To help manage these, requests we are doing two
things. First APHIS and FAS, collaborate to set clear priorities about
the order in which SPS issues should be addressed. These priorities are
based on criteria such as feasibility, economics and U.S. foreign policy
considerations. Second, APHIS is also streamlining regulatory and risk
assessment processes and better employing information technology and
analytical resources to expedite decisions involving import requests.

At the same time, APHIS helps ensure the SPS health status for U.S.
exports not only by certifying shipments but also by making available
our expertise to help industry and states with export programs to
support the safe movement of agricultural commodities for export. APHIS
does this work in a transparent fashion and shares information with all
parties so agricultural trade continues to grow and provide
opportunities for U.S. consumers, farmers, and industries.

**Mission Priority 4: Enhance the well-being of animals covered by the
Animal Welfare Act (AWA) and the Horse Protection Act (HPA)**

APHIS is responsible for the well-being of animals covered by the AWA
and the HPA. We recognize how important regulatory compliance is to
animal well-being. We work with the USDA's Office of the General Counsel
to improve enforcement tools and processes, particularly for the worst
offenders. Areas that need improvement include developing cases,
confiscations, and license revocations.

We also build compliance through non-regulatory means such as outreach,
education, training, and liaison. In using these strategies, we have
been able to raise the public's awareness about animal well-being,
educate regulated entities about the rules, develop liaisons with
state-level regulators, and provide some training to all regulators.

While these efforts have been successful, we are now developing a
national center to ensure greater national consistency of these
activities. The center will be a focal point for housing and
disseminating the most current animal welfare information, expanding our
training efforts, and assisting in the on-going dialogue with
international partners and stakeholders on these issues.

With the 2002 amendment to the AWA and associated expansion of our
responsibilities for animal well-being, we will develop and implement
regulations for birds (excluding poultry) rats, and mice that are not
bred for use in research.

## Organizational Priorities

**Organizational Priority 1: Value and Invest in APHIS Employees**

Our highly skilled and dedicated employees accomplish the important work
of APHIS. As APHIS' programs grow in importance nationally and globally,
we must keep pace by helping employees develop a broad array of
technical, managerial, and communication skills.

We will invest in our employees in three key areas: 1) improving our
internal supervisory capabilities, 2) continuing to support our
workforce and succession plans, and 3) becoming a model civil rights
organization. A model organization is one that has a diverse workforce,
a positive work environment, and delivers programs fairly and
impartially to all of its customers.

These efforts begin at the supervisory and leadership levels. APHIS will
support supervisors so they have the knowledge, skills and abilities to
effectively support employees. In working to enhance supervisory
effectiveness, APHIS will provide current managers with the best tools
and information to help them become better leaders, improve their
ability to avoid or resolve conflicts, and encourage their employees to
communicate and collaborate more effectively.

Since APHIS recognizes that managing people requires more than good
technical program skills, we will also recruit our future leaders
stressing the importance of accomplishing program goals, while building
diversity, creating a positive work environment, and impartially
delivering great customer service.

Effective succession planning will help ensure that we have future
supervisors and leaders who are scientifically and technically competent
**and** have the needed interpersonal skills to be effective. Likewise,
we must have solid recruitment and retention plans to ensure that we
have people at *all* levels with the array of scientific, technical and
interpersonal skills for effective communication and collaboration.

We will continue to provide a wide variety of technical training to our
employees and partners who carry out the APHIS mission. We will continue
efforts to create work environments where employees are actively
involved and have the proper tools and training to do their jobs. Also,
we will reward exceptional performance from our employees and
supervisors, in an equitable and transparent manner.

**Organizational Priority 2: Accomplish our Mission through Effective
and Efficient Management of our Programs**

APHIS continues to work on the President's Management Agenda (PMA), that
includes 5 Government-wide initiatives aimed at increasing effectiveness
and efficiency: 1) the Strategic Management of Human Capital, 2)
Competitive Sourcing 3) Improved Financial Performance 4) Expanded
Electronic Government and 5) Budget and Performance Integration.

Taking the lead from the PMA, APHIS will become more internally cohesive
by developing common processes and tools. This includes internal
collaboration on developing consistent and shared administrative
processes and information management systems for such things as
cooperative agreements, permits, purchases, and cost management. We need
to harmonize IT systems across the Agency to ensure integration,
responsiveness and security.

We will develop efficient and shared administrative systems for managing
emergency responses. Where appropriate we will integrate
programmatically, such as Veterinary Services and Wildlife Services
working together on wildlife disease surveillance and detection and
Biotechnology Regulatory Services working with Veterinary Services and
Plant Protection and Quarantine on biotechnology policies.

A key to APHIS' success is the way each operational unit successfully
meets the expectations of our main stakeholders. To do this, we need to
share program resources to maximize the potential for the success of
APHIS overall.

In addition, APHIS will gain efficiencies through collaborative efforts
with our external stakeholders/partners. Large-scale projects like the
National Animal Health Laboratory Network (NAHLN) and the National Plant
Disease Network (NPDN) involve partnerships with other agencies and
State and university laboratories to increase diagnostic capability.
This in turn enhances our safeguarding capability. All these initiatives
help APHIS to be more efficient and effective.

**Conclusion**

We see this set of four mission priorities and two organizational
priorities as the crucial building blocks to get APHIS where it needs to
be over the next five years. We will continue to value and invest in our
employees, work on our internal effectiveness and efficiency so that we
strengthen our safeguarding and emergency response systems, bolster our
ability to facilitate safe trade and enhance the well being of animals
covered by the *Animal Welfare Act* and the *Horse Protection Act.* In
these ways, we will continue to protect US agriculture and natural
resources for future generations.