System of Record Notice

SYSTEM NAME:  

Veterinary ServicesEmergency Management Response System (EMRS), USDA/APHIS.

SYSTEM LOCATION:  

U.S. Department of Agriculture, APHIS, Veterinary Service, Centers for Epidemiology & Animal Health, Fort Collins, Colorado

CATEGORIES OF INDIVIDUALS COVERED BY THE SYSTEM:  

Individual or company name may identify premises/animal location, premises owner, animal owner, related agribusiness owner, referring contact, case coordinator, assigned investigator, submitter, collector, person assigned to visit premises, appraisal officer, federal approving official, state representative, euthanasia crew chief, disposal crew chief, cleaning and disinfection crew chief, cleaning and disinfection inspector, or disease response employee

CATEGORIES OF RECORDS MAINTAINED IN THE SYSTEM: 

Record includes individual name and/or company name, phone number(s), address, city, state/province, zip, county, country, latitude/longitude and email address (for personnel working on the investigation  NOT for contact at the premises). Individuals positions held during an emergency response, completed training (e.g., online, in-class, et. al.), skills (including language, e.g., Spanish, French, etc. capability) and other related experience, as well as costs incurred related to transport of employee to and from emergency response, per diem, overtime, et. al.  

AUTHORITY FOR MAINTENANCE OF THE SYSTEM:  

The Animal Health Protection Act, 7 U.S.C. 8301 et. seq. which includes section 8320.  The Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002.  Public Health Security and Bioterrorism Preparedness and Response Act of 2002 116 Stat. 674-678.

PURPOSE OF THE SYSTEM:

(1) Document the timely routine investigation of all reported suspect foreign animal disease/emerging disease issues (FAD/EDIs) per VS Memo 580-4.  

(2) Document the investigation and resource usage (as determined by emergency response management personnel) during a foreign or emerging animal disease outbreak response, of the response activities per National Animal Health Emergency Management System Guidelines. 

(3) Document tracing of movements of animals, animal products and other potentially exposed material and people for foreign, emerging and specific domestic disease situations.

(4) Document the occurrence of emerging animal diseases in the US or in other countries.

ROUTINE USES OF THE RECORDS CONTAINED IN THE SYSTEM, INCLUDING THE CATEGORIES OF USERS AND THE PURPOSE OF SUCH USE: 

(1) Used as a referral for international, as well as for our federal and state animal health officials to learn what investigative activities have been completed for a particular investigation.  

(2) Referral for national veterinary services laboratories to keep abreast of the investigative activities for laboratory submissions they are receiving for a specific investigation.  

(3) Referral for federal and state animal health officials who need to follow up on animals traced out of infected herds to other premises with susceptible animals that may be in the same or different state.  

(4) Referral for international, as well as for our federal and state epidemiologists for epidemiological and geospatial analysis of routine foreign and emerging animal disease investigations and animal health emergency responses.

(5) Referral for the appropriate agency, whether Federal, State, local, or foreign, charged with the responsibility of investigating or prosecuting a violation of law, or of enforcing or implementing the statute, rule, regulation or order issued pursuant thereto, of any record within this system when information available indicates a violation or potential violation of law, whether civil, criminal or regulatory in nature, and whether arising by general statute or particular program statute, or by rule, regulation or order issued pursuant thereto.  

(6) Referral for the emergency managers to identify emergency management response positions held by employees and training obtained during previous emergency responses to better determine future emergency response assignments.

(7) Referral for international, as well as for our federal and state financial administrators to determine actual costs incurred during an emergency response to assist in forecasting costs of a future animal health emergency response.

(8) Referral for federal and state administrators to track usage of equipment and vehicles during an emergency response and anticipate equipment and vehicle needs of a future animal health emergency response.

(9) Disclosure to the Department of Justice for use in litigation when the agency, or any component thereof, or any employee of the agency in his or her official capacity, or any employee of the agency in his or her individual capacity where the Department of Justice has agreed to represent the employee, or the United States, where the agency determined that litigation is likely to affect the agency or any of its components, is a party to litigation or has an interest in such litigation, and the use of such records by the department of Justice is deemed by the agency to be relevant and necessary to the litigation; provided, however, that in each case, the agency determines that disclosure of the records to the Department of Justice is a use of the information contained in the records that is compatible with the purpose for which the records were collected.  

(10) Disclosure in a proceeding before a court or adjudicative body before which the agency is authorized to appear, when the agency, or any component thereof, or any employee of the agency in his or her official capacity, or any employee of the agency in his or her individual capacity where the agency has agreed to represent the employee, or the United States, where the agency determines that litigation is likely to affect the agency or any of its components, is a party to litigation or has an interest in such litigation, and the agency determines that use of such records is relevant and necessary to the litigation; provided, however, that in each case, the agency determines that disclosure of the records to the court is a use of the information contained in the records that is compatible with the purpose for which the records were collected. 

(11) Disclosure may be made to a congressional office from the record of an individual in response to an inquiry from the congressional office made at the request of that individual. 

(12) To disseminate information and solicit feedback from federal and state animal health officials within the system on emergency preparedness guidelines and the system itself for the purpose of educating and involving the federal and state animal health officials in program development, program requirements, and standards of conduct.

(13) Referral to the National Biosurveillance Integration System and Offshore Pest Information System to augment situational awareness.

(14) Referral as source material to create updates or summaries of disease status in the US.

POLICIES AND PRACTICES FOR STORAGE, RETRIEVABILITY, ACCESS CONTROLS, RETENTION, AND DISPOSAL OF THE RECORDS.

STORAGE:

The master replicas of EMRS reside on servers in computer rooms at two USDA locations.  All servers in the computer room are backed up nightly.  Backup media is taken weekly to a secure off-site storage facility.  Field servers are set up at animal disease outbreak locations as needed during an outbreak.  Data entered on field servers are automatically replicated back to master replicas at least once per hour.

RETRIEVABILITY:

All EMRS data is organized and can be retrieved by any of the categories which have been recorded.  Routine reporting capability exists for authorized users and various tools exist for users to retrieve data in different formats and data base structures as needed for more detailed analysis.

SAFEGUARDS:

The computer data is kept in a secure Lotus Notes environment where the data is accessible only to users given a user ID and password by USDA personnel.  Each instance of EMRS has a separate list of authorized users maintained by USDA.

RETENTION AND DISPOSAL:

After an animal disease outbreak, data is recorded on a CD and distributed to outbreak management personnel and kept for an indefinite time.  Routine FAD/EDI EMRS data is currently retained on the server for an indefinite time.

SYSTEM MANAGER(S) AND ADDRESS: 

Director, Center for Epidemiology and Animal Health, Veterinary Services, USDA/APHIS, 2150 Centre Ave. Bldg B. Ft Collins, CO 80524.

NOTIFICATION PROCEDURE: 

Any individual may request information regarding the system of records contained in the NAIS or request information on whether the NAIS contains records pertaining to him/her.  A request for information pertaining to an individual should be in writing and should contain: name, address, and social security number.  All inquiries should be addressed to:  

Director, Freedom of Information and Privacy Act Staff
Legislative and Public Affairs
USDA: APHIS
4700 River Road
Riverdale, MD 20737-1232

RECORD ACCESS PROCEDURE: 

Any individual may obtain information from a record in the system which pertains to him/her by submitting a written request to the address above.

CONTESTING RECORD PROCEDURES:

Any individual may contest information contained within a record in the system which pertains to him/her by submitting a written request to the system manager at the address listed above. 

RECORD SOURCE CATEGORIES:

Data is entered by authorized federal, state, or temporary hires during an animal disease outbreak or during the course of a routine FAD/EDI investigation.  Information is obtained from either the person or persons associated with the premises or animals of concern or the employee, and is often supplemented during an investigation by on-site visits, USPS data base, other address-validation data base, or business database. EMRS is used to manage the day-to-day activities associated with foreign and emerging animal disease outbreak responses.  Records relating to potential emerging diseases (non-FAD investigation records) are obtained from open-source information channels through electronic scanning activities or through personal communications by APHIS points of contact.  

SYSTEMS EXEMPTED FROM CERTAIN PROVISIONS OF THE ACT:

The portions of this system which consist of investigatory material compiled for law
enforcement purposes have been exempted pursuant to 5 U.S.C. 552a(k)(2) from the provisions of 5 U.S.C. 552a(c)(3), (d), (e)(1), (e)(4)(G), (H), and (I), and (f). See 7 CFR 1.23. Individual access to these records would impair investigations and alert subjects of investigations that their activities are being scrutinized, and thus allow them time to take measures to prevent detection of illegal action to escape prosecution. Any individual who feels, however, that he has been denied any right, privilege or benefit for which he would otherwise be eligible as a result of the maintenance of such material may request access to the material. Such requests should be addressed to the Director of APHIS Legislative and Public Affairs (LPA) office at the address listed in the notification procedures section above.