United States

Department of

Agriculture

Animal and

Plant Health

Inspection

Service

Miscellaneous

Publication

No. 1550

Veterinary Services:

Protecting Animal

Health and

Promoting Trade
Photo credit: Images in this brochure were

taken by APHIS photographer Laurie Smith or

by agency personnel in the field.

Front cover: VS veterinarians work with sheep

breeders to develop flocks that are free of

scrapie, a fatal degenerative disease of the

central nervous system.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)

prohibits discrimination in all its programs and

activities on the basis of race, color, national

origin, sex, religion, age, disability, political

beliefs, sexual orientation, or marital or family

status. (Not all prohibited bases apply to all

programs.) Persons with disabilities who require

alternative means for communication of

program information (Braille, large print,

audiotape, etc.) should contact USDA’s

TARGET Center at (202) 720–2600 (voice and

TDD).

To file a complaint of discrimination, write

USDA, Director, Office of Civil Rights, Room

326–W, Whitten Building, 1400 Independence

Avenue, SW, Washington, DC 20250–9410 or

call (202) 720–5964 (voice and TDD). USDA is

an equal opportunity provider and employer.

Issued October 1998

Reviewed and approved for reprinting

December 2001
Protecting agriculture today is a

challenge that transcends national,

political, and geophysical boundaries. The U.S. Department of

Agriculture’s (USDA) Animal and

Plant Health Inspection Service

(APHIS) protects and promotes

U.S. agriculture by keeping

agricultural pests and diseases

from entering the country, by

facilitating the flow of agricultural

exports, and by developing and

ensuring compliance with sciencebased regulations in agricultural

trade. Veterinary Services (VS) is

the animal health arm of APHIS.

VS is dedicated not only to

protecting the health, quality, and

Mission

An outbreak of a foreign cattle disease

in the United States could seriously

damage this $53-billion-a-year industry.

productivity of the Nation’s

livestock and poultry but also to

facilitating agricultural trade.

VS strives to serve the livestock

producers of this country as well

as the consumers of animal

products and citizens concerned

about public health and environmental safety. Achieving program

goals cannot take place in a

vacuum: success requires

cooperation with others. To

enhance cooperation, VS fosters

continuous communication among

foreign and U.S. animal health

professionals, governments, and

industry organizations.

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Scope of Activities

Managing VS animal health

programs involves five major

activities:

• Keeping foreign animal diseases

from entering the country,

• Providing an emergency

response when exotic livestock

diseases slip past U.S. borders,

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VS officials must

keep accurate

records to identify

blood samples taken

in the field for

diagnostic tests that

support animal health

programs.

• Controlling or eradicating major

domestic livestock diseases,

• Preventing the interstate spread

of diseases, and

• Facilitating exports by attesting

to the health status of outgoing

animals.
Employees

VS employees—more than 30

percent of whom have advanced

degrees in such specialties as

veterinary science, epidemiology,

entomology, and public health—

perform their duties in all parts of

the country. Management and staff

specialists work at APHIS headquarters offices in and near

Washington, DC. Currently, the

field force operates out of four

regional headquarters with local

offices in nearly every State,

generally in the capital. In the next

2 to 4 years, the Secretary of

Agriculture’s regional consolidaVS official checks on the health of a

traveler’s pet bird kept under quarantine

at a border port.

tion initiative will streamline the

agency’s field structure into two

new regional hubs—an eastern

hub in Raleigh, NC, and a western

hub in Ft. Collins, CO.

VS veterinarians get support from

a corps of about 45,000 private

veterinarians who are officially

accredited to test and certify an

animal’s health status. Field

operations also depend to a critical

extent on the close cooperation of

State animal health employees,

the veterinary profession, and the

livestock and poultry industries.

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VS specialists track exotic

livestock diseases worldwide and

evaluate the risks posed by these

diseases. If a foreign animal

disease were to become established in American livestock or

poultry, the economic consequences to producers and

consumers would be severe. For

example, eradication of a highly

pathogenic form of avian influenza

in 1983 and 1984 resulted in the

destruction of more than 17 million

birds and cost taxpayers nearly

$65 million. This major outbreak

caused consumers’ poultry and

egg costs to increase about onethird in just 6 months.

If an exotic disease were to breach

U.S. border defenses, VS officials

would assess the threat and

decide how best to respond. One

option would be to activate one of

two Regional Emergency Animal

Disease Eradication Organizations

(READEO’s), operating out of

Raleigh and Fort Collins.

READEO team members are

highly trained and ready to fight

exotic diseases anywhere in the

United States. READEO teams

can act quickly to confirm the

presence of an exotic disease,

inspect infected and exposed

animals, and appraise the value of

Emergency Programs and

the READEO System

animals that may have to be

destroyed. The teams can then

direct vaccination programs and

conduct epidemiological studies,

as well as dispose of infected

animal carcasses, clean and

disinfect premises, set and enforce

regulations against disease

spread, and control disease

vectors.

The two READEO teams conduct

regular practice exercises to

ensure that they remain prepared.

A recent enhancement to the

READEO program is the formation

of three-member Early Response

Teams that can be deployed

anywhere in the United States

within 24 hours to assess a

disease situation that may lead to

the activation of a READEO team.

In the event of an activation,

READEO team members will

quickly set up field operations to

lead an eradication effort.

Responding to a disease outbreak

requires cooperation among VS

personnel, State animal health

officials, industry, and the public.

VS takes the lead in coordinating

the efforts of these groups and

ensures that the methods used for

dealing with a disease outbreak

remain current.
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Cattle Diseases

APHIS (and its predecessor, the

USDA Bureau of Animal Industry)

has been working cooperatively

with the livestock industries and

State animal health authorities

since 1934 to eradicate cattle

brucellosis from the United States.

Nationwide, brucellosis eradication

from domestic cattle and bison

herds is expected by the end of

1998. As of spring 1998, 44

States, Puerto Rico, and the U.S.

Virgin Islands had already

achieved brucellosis-free status,

Disease Surveillance

and another 4 States were in the

qualifying period with no known

infection. To achieve brucellosisfree status, a State’s domestic

cattle and bison populations must

be found free of infection for 12

consecutive months.

VS is also working to eradicate

tuberculosis in cattle and bison.

VS “tick riders” patrol the Texas–

Mexican border on horseback to

prevent the reintroduction of cattle

fever ticks.

VS tick riders patrol the Texas–

Mexican border in the lower Rio

Grande River Valley to intercept cattle

that may carry ticks or that may pose

other disease problems.
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Swine Diseases

Staff officers handling key swine

diseases, such as swine brucellosis and pseudorabies, manage

eradication programs and coordinate educational campaigns to

prevent infection.

A major disease-prevention

program ensures that waste food

from restaurants, institutions, and

other sources is cooked properly

before it is fed to swine. Disease

organisms can survive in meat and

bones even after an infected

animal has died. Proper cooking

ensures that if disease agents are

brought onto a farm through food

wastes, they get stopped in their

tracks.

VS veterinarian

checks the ear tag

on a pig as part of a

swine health

campaign. Identification is essential to

trace back a disease

outbreak.
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The Voluntary Scrapie Flock Certification

Program helps participating owners

protect their sheep from scrapie and

enhances the marketability of their

animals.

Other Diseases

VS also monitors poultry, sheep,

and equine health. The National

Poultry Improvement Plan certifies

the health of poultry breeding

flocks. The Salmonella Task Force

is responsible for reducing the risk

of eggborne illness in humans by

investigating egg-related salmonella outbreaks.

The Voluntary Scrapie Flock

Certification Program is a

cooperative effort between VS,

industry representatives, accredited veterinarians, and State

animal health officials. The

program provides participating

producers with the opportunity to

protect their sheep from scrapie

and to enhance the marketability

of their animals by certifying their

origin in scrapie-free flocks. In

addition, APHIS regulations restrict

the interstate movement of sheep

from scrapie-infected flocks.

VS helps prevent such equine

diseases as glanders, dourine,

and contagious equine metritis in

thoroughbreds, pleasure horses,

and show horses, and works to

maintain their disease-free status

through import testing and

quarantine procedures.
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With the implementation of tradeliberalizing agreements, such as

the General Agreement on Tariffs

and Trade and the North American

Free Trade Agreement, and

creation of the World Trade

Organization, the demands facing

APHIS have changed dramatically.

The volume and complexity of

sanitary and phytosanitary issues

surrounding trade and the

workload associated with regulating imports and facilitating exports

are increasing by leaps and

bounds. APHIS has a unique

position with regard to trade and is

striving to carefully balance its

Expanding Trade

The United States is the world’s leading

exporter of agricultural products.

responsibilities to safeguard

America’s agricultural resources

with its efforts to open doors for

U.S. agricultural exports.

APHIS’ ultimate goal with regard to

international trade is to promote

the creation of a level playing field

where the movement of food and

agricultural commodities is based

on international standards, risk

analysis, and the use of innovative

risk-management strategies. To

that end, VS, in cooperation with

APHIS’ International Services unit,

actively participates in international

standards-setting meetings, such
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as those held by the Office International des Epizooties (OIE). OIE is

sanctioned by the World Trade

Organization as the official entity

for the development of international

animal health-related standards.

VS’ National Center for Import and

Export (NCIE) promotes global

trade in livestock and poultry by

reducing barriers posed by

diseases and pests. One staff

works to prevent introduction of

exotic diseases and pests into the

United States. Another staff

coordinates documentation to show

that exported animals are healthy

and meet an importing country’s

standards.

Facilitating Exports

The export certification efforts of

NCIE inspire much-needed trust

from foreign countries that they

are receiving healthy, pest- and

disease-free agricultural

shipments.

VS import regulations encourage

foreign countries to abide by strict

animal health standards, and VS is

committed to managing the export

of healthy animals in return. NCIE

personnel work with foreign animal

health officials to develop protocols for certifying and testing

export animals and animal

products.

In Ft. Collins, VS maintains a data

base called the International

Regulation Retrieval System that

lists the animal health requirements of other countries. Exporters and veterinarians can access

this retrieval system through the

APHIS Home Page on the World

Wide Web

(http://www.aphis.usda.gov/vs).

Disease Exclusion Through

Testing Imports

VS’ efforts on the homefront to

protect American livestock ensure

that U.S. consumers can continue

to enjoy the bounty of American

agriculture and, through increased

trade, sample the tastes of the

world. NCIE regulates and issues

permits for the importation of live

animals, poultry, pet birds, and

animal products, such as meats,

cheeses, casein, gelatins, certain

animal hides and racks, and germ

plasm—both semen and embryos.

NCIE carefully monitors all of these

commodities in case they are

infected with foreign animal

diseases, like avian influenza or

hog cholera, that could threaten

U.S. livestock populations. For

example, countries that have

outbreaks of foot-and-mouth

disease are not allowed to export

fresh, chilled, or frozen meats to the

United States. However, such meat

products can be shipped into this

country if they have been commercially heat processed or cured

according to APHIS standards.

NCIE establishes similar requirements for countries where other

animal diseases exist. VS veterinarians and animal health technicians
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are stationed at most border

crossing points and ports of entry to

intercept incoming diseased

animals and contaminated animal

products before they can enter the

United States.

Along the Texas–Mexican border

on the lower Rio Grande River

Valley, VS maintains patrols that

look for cattle that wander or are

herded into this country. These socalled tick riders intercept cattle that

may carry ticks that can debilitate

cattle, reduce dairy and meat

production, and spread disease.

Incoming animals that need to be

quarantined can be accommodated

at a variety of facilities. VS operates

Government-owned quarantine

stations in Los Angeles, CA, Miami,

FL, and Newburgh, NY, to handle

commercial shipments of livestock

and other animals. VS also

operates six small quarantine

centers at border ports to facilitate

the safe entry of personally owned

pet birds brought in by international

travelers. In addition, VS veterinarians and technicians supervise

biosecurity at about 65 privately

owned bird-import facilities near

major U.S. ports.

Animal materials imported for

research purposes must be

accompanied by import permits

specifying the intended use. Such

material includes organisms,

vectors, cell cultures, animal

tissues, antibodies, embryos,

animal semen, and other genetic

material.

VS inspectors examine and quarantine

incoming animals, even if they are

destined for life in a zoo, in order to

protect the health of farm animals.
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Other APHIS programs also

safeguard U.S. borders against the

entry of foreign animal pests and

diseases. At airport terminals,

seaports, and border stations,

APHIS’ Plant Protection and

Quarantine (PPQ) officers inspect

international conveyances and the

baggage of passengers for plant

and animal products that could

harbor pests or disease organisms.

At international airports, detector

dogs in APHIS’ Beagle Brigade help

find prohibited agricultural materials. PPQ officers also inspect ship

and air cargoes, rail and truck

freight, and package mail from

foreign countries.

Overseas, APHIS operates

preclearance programs to eliminate

pests in some imported products

right at the source. APHIS’

International Services (IS) officials

stationed in foreign countries

maintain a comprehensive information network on the status of animal

and plant pests and diseases

around the world. IS also negotiates

plant and animal health requirements for U.S. exports and foreign

imports.

Regionalization

On October 28, 1997, APHIS

adopted a final rule on risk-based

regional import regulations in

accordance with the World Trade

Organization Sanitary and

Phytosanitary Agreement. The

import requirements center around

two key points: regionalization and

expanded risk assessment and

classification. Risk assessment

consists of identifying risk factors

and evaluating their seriousness.

The concept of regionalization is

founded on the longstanding idea

that import requirements should be

based on geography and science

rather than politics.

In other words, APHIS established

a framework for allowing the

importation of animals and animal

products into the United States from

foreign regions, rather than only

countries. The framework also

established procedures by which

regions may request permission to

export animals and animal products

to the United States under specified

conditions, based on the region’s

disease status.

These new regulations have

opened new world markets to U.S.

agricultural industries and allowed

foreign farmers, who previously

could not, to sell their livestock and

products to American consumers.

In May 1997, APHIS recognized

Sonora, Mexico, as free of hog

cholera and allowed imports of

fresh, chilled, and frozen pork under

certain conditions. One month later,

APHIS announced its final rule to

allow the importation of beef from

Argentina, finding the country to be

a low-risk region for foot-and-mouth

disease and rinderpest. These were

the agency’s first two decisions to

allow agricultural imports based on

regionalization.
The National Veterinary Services

Laboratories include several

facilities in Ames, IA, and the highsecurity biocontainment Foreign

Animal Disease Diagnostic

Laboratory on Plum Island, off the

coast of New York’s Long Island.

The various VS laboratories

analyze blood, tissue, and

environmental samples to promote

disease tracking and identification.

Diagnosticians work rapidly and

accurately to help APHIS epidemiologists in the field find the cause

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National Veterinary Services

Laboratories

Diagnostician at the

VS National

Veterinary Services

Laboratories works

under a laminar flow

hood to detect

possible salmonella

contamination in

samples collected on

a poultry farm.

of a disease outbreak as quickly

as possible.

Laboratory workers also assist in

quality control of animal vaccines

and related products. VS laboratory technicians check test

samples of production runs of

manufacturers licensed by the VS

Center for Veterinary Biologics in

Ames, IA. Any biologics that don’t

meet Federal standards are kept

off the market.
Besides helping individual VS

programs manage their data, VS

operates the National Animal

Health Monitoring System

(NAHMS). NAHMS is a cooperative effort to gather health status

information about various species

of farm animals—information that

will benefit producers, exporters,

researchers, practicing veterinarians, and local, State, and Federal

animal health officials. Information

from NAHMS enables producers to

improve farm management

practices, especially disease

control. Additionally, researchers

and veterinarians can access the

data base for comparative studies

of disease incidence, risk assessment, and preventive treatment

techniques.

Special Campaigns

• VS is enforcing import restrictions and is conducting a surveillance program for bovine

spongiform encephalopathy

(BSE), a deadly disease that has

devastated the cattle industry in

the United Kingdom. BSE, widely

referred to as “mad cow disease,”

is a chronic degenerative disease

VS veterinarians work with poultry

breeders to secure healthy breeding

stock to control egg-transmitted,

hatchery-disseminated diseases.

National Animal Health

Monitoring

15
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affecting the central nervous

system of cattle. The United

Kingdom announced in March 1996

that BSE may be linked to a variant

form of Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease,

a similar rare disease in humans.

BSE has not been diagnosed in the

United States, and USDA works

proactively to keep it that way. In

cooperation with USDA’s Food

Safety and Inspection Service, VS

has taken aggressive measures in

prevention, education, surveillance,

and response. VS leads the

interagency surveillance program

for signs of BSE in the United

States based on laboratories

examining brains from high-risk

cattle. VS also prohibits the

importation of certain animal and

animal products from countries

where BSE is known to exist.

• In December 1996, APHIS sent

an Emergency Response Team to

several farms in southeastern Iowa

to investigate a disease that was

causing sows to abort there and

elsewhere. The team worked

closely with veterinary practitioners,

university diagnostic laboratories,

USDA’s National Animal Disease

Center, the National Pork Producers Council, and the Iowa Pork

Producers Association. The disease

was found to be an acute form of

porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome, a domestic disease

of swine. These cooperative efforts

have led to additional joint studies

to better understand this acute form

of the disease.

The diseases that now concern VS

were not a problem to early

livestock producers in North

America. Animal diseases that

plagued Europe, Asia, and Africa

were unknown on this continent.

The situation changed dramatically

in 1843, after a cow sick with

contagious bovine pleuropneumonia arrived at the Port of New York

and spread the disease to

susceptible animals in the newly

established U.S. dairy industry.

The threat to U.S. domestic and

foreign markets prompted Congress to establish the Bureau of

Animal Industry within USDA in

1884. Bureau scientists immediately tackled the outbreak of

contagious bovine pleuropneumonia, eradicating that disease by

1892.

The Bureau’s scientists later

helped eradicate several other

diseases. One of their most

ambitious projects was to control

nine outbreaks of foot-and-mouth

disease, a fatal disease that

threatens all major classes of

livestock. In the United States, this

disease was finally wiped out in

1929, and U.S. disease specialists

helped to eradicate later outbreaks

of foot-and-mouth disease in

Canada and Mexico as well.

Federal disease-management

campaigns also succeeded in

ridding the U.S. livestock and

poultry industry of Texas cattle

History and Accomplishments
fever, fowl plague, glanders,

dourine, vesicular exanthema, and

screwworm infestations. More

recently, USDA eradication efforts

overcame Venezuelan equine

encephalitis, sheep scabies, exotic

Newcastle disease, hog cholera,

and a highly pathogenic form of

avian influenza. The success of

these efforts proved the efficacy of

maintaining task forces of trained

specialists to deal with outbreaks

of animal diseases.

The Bureau of Animal Industry

was abolished in 1953, and its

responsibilities for animal disease

management were adopted by

USDA’s Agricultural Research

Service. In 1972, these responsibilities were transferred to the

newly formed APHIS.

A number of new directions for VS

programs are in the works or on

the horizon:

• VS is devoting more resources

to preventing and tracking disease

while directing fewer resources at

extensive new federally managed

disease-eradication initiatives.

• VS is encouraging producers to

control diseases through voluntary

industry-operated programs. For

example, the former VS-directed

eradication campaign against

scrapie in sheep and goats has

now become a voluntary industry

program supervised by VS. The

immediate aim of the program is to

reduce the economic damage

incurred by producers and to

establish disease-free sources of

replacement stock.

• VS is also devoting more

resources to resolving animal

health problems impeding international trade, backing up the

monitoring and negotiating efforts

of APHIS’ International Services.

Future Trends

17
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Additional Information

VS monitors the health of imported pet birds to be sure they don’t carry plagues

like exotic Newcastle disease, which could devastate the U.S. poultry industry.

VS will continue to protect American agriculture by actively working

with producers, industry, and the

general public to identify, prevent,

control, and eradicate animal

diseases. Veterinarians and

livestock and poultry owners who

suspect a foreign animal disease

should immediately contact State

or Federal animal health authorities.

For further information, contact

USDA, APHIS, VS

Operational Support Staff

4700 River Road, Unit 33

Riverdale, MD 20737–1231

Telephone (301) 734–8093

Fax (301) 734–8818

For import permit applications and

information about import requirements, contact

USDA, APHIS, VS, NCIE

4700 River Road, Unit 38

Riverdale, MD 20737–1231

Telephone (301) 734–8364

Fax (301) 734–3222

Automated Document

Retrieval Fax

(301) 734–4952

Current information on animal

diseases, suspected outbreaks,

and import and export requirements is also available on the

Internet. To reach the APHIS home

page, point your Web browser to

http://www.aphis.usda.gov