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Statement of Kevin Shea

Administrator

Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service

U.S. Department of Agriculture

Before the

Subcommittees on Biotechnology, Horticulture, and Research

and

Livestock and Foreign Agriculture

of the

House Committee on Agriculture

March 15, 2016

Chairmen Davis and Rouzer, Ranking Members DelBene and Costa, and Members of the 

Committee, I appreciate the opportunity to appear before you today to discuss the importance of 

ensuring that the United States is prepared to prevent, detect, and respond to threats to plant and 

animal health. I have with me today our Deputy Administrator for Plant Protection and 

Quarantine Mr. Osama El-Lissy and our Acting Deputy Administrator for Veterinary Services 

Dr. Jack Shere.

As you well know, safeguarding against significant plant and animal pests and diseases—ranging 

from the European grapevine moth to foot and mouth disease—is vital to protecting industry, 

producers, and consumers, and ensuring that we have a safe and secure food supply. It remains a 

top priority for the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), and is something we at the Animal 

and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) are committed to every day. 

The impact of pests and diseases on the U.S. economy can be staggering. The outbreak of highly 

pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) last year—which was the largest animal disease outbreak in 

U.S. history—cost U.S. taxpayers nearly $1 billion just in response, clean up, and indemnity 

costs. That didn’t include lost export markets, temporary shortages, or price increases for certain 

poultry and their products. The Mediterranean fruit fly—known as the most destructive 

agricultural pest in the world—infests more than 300 varieties of fruits, vegetables, and nuts, 

including apple, bell pepper, grape, lemon, orange, peach, tomato and walnut. The gross value 

of just those eight commodities in California alone is more than $14 billion a year (USDA 

NASS, 2014).

Pests and diseases can limit our ability to produce healthy and abundant crops and can shut off 

foreign markets for U.S. producers. They also highlight the importance of our “One Health” 

approach to coordinating efforts across the government to protect human and animal health. 

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), about 75 percent of 

recently emerging infectious diseases affecting humans originate in animals. And approximately 

60 percent of all human pathogens are zoonotic. The work that APHIS and its partners 

undertake to protect U.S. agricultural health provides benefits far beyond the fields and farms.
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Threats to U.S. agricultural health can come from a number of places—hitchhiking pests 

imported on cargo or ships, a traveler bringing food from his or her homeland, a sick animal or 

pet being brought from overseas, or even nefarious attempts at agroterrorism. Regardless of the 

intent, APHIS’ focus is on putting in place preventive measures to keep pests and diseases out of 

the country, preparing for these threats, detecting them, and taking emergency action if 

necessary. 

APHIS has a wide breadth of expertise and over 40 years of experience in protecting U.S. 

agriculture from plant and animal pests and diseases. From our cadre of veterinarians to our plant 

pathologists, wildlife biologists, entomologists, epidemiologists, and microbiologists, we have a 

strong scientific infrastructure that informs our decision making and actions. The relationships 

we have built with our partners in this effort also serve to strengthen our protections against pests 

and diseases. We work closely with state departments of agriculture and natural resources, local 

governments, stakeholder groups, and federal agencies including U.S. Customs and Border 

Protection (CBP). 

To protect America’s agriculture and environment, APHIS and its partners maintain a 

comprehensive system of overlapping safeguards that operate overseas, at U.S. ports of entry, 

and within the United States to prevent foreign plant and animal pests and diseases from gaining 

a foothold in our country. Today, I will give you an overview of our efforts in each of these 

areas, as well as discuss some of our initiatives that further support these activities.

Overseas and Risk Mitigation Activities

APHIS’ work to safeguard the health and value of American agriculture begins by preventing 

harmful pests and diseases from entering the United States. This work starts overseas, in some 

cases in the field or on the farm. Our Plant Protection and Quarantine (PPQ), Veterinary 

Services (VS), and International Services (IS) programs work with foreign governments, 

agricultural producers, and shippers to produce healthier crops, exclude pests at their origin, and 

treat at-risk commodities in the country of origin or on the high seas before shipments get near 

our shores. 

APHIS, with employees stationed in more than 30 countries, collects and analyzes data on 

foreign pests and diseases from around the world to detect potential trade pathways for 

accidentally transporting foreign invasive pests. This information helps us make better policy 

decisions, such as where risk assessments should focus, when to modify port of entry 

inspections, and what pests we should be surveying for at home. 

Our work to help our foreign counterparts build their own infrastructures and capacity to respond 

to emerging pest and disease conditions is another essential component of our safeguarding 

activities. Through our capacity building programs, we train plant and animal health officials 

from other countries in developing effective systems to identify and control pests and diseases 

locally.

We also work closely with multilateral organizations throughout the world to promote effective 

disease surveillance overseas and gain access to information on agriculture health issues 
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worldwide. These include international and regional groups such as the International Plant 

Protection Convention, the North American Plant Protection Organization, the World Animal 

Health Organization, the International Seed Testing Association, and the Codex Alimentarius 

Commission.

Combined with our overseas efforts, APHIS’ import regulations work to mitigate the risk posed 

by agricultural products long before they reach U.S. ports of entry. Before we will allow imports 

of a specific product from a specific region of the world, our scientists conduct a risk assessment 

that enables us to make informed decisions about the potential pest or disease risks associated 

with that specific commodity. Based on these assessments, APHIS will only allow imports if 

they can occur in a safe manner. 

APHIS also maintains strict, science-based import regulations for foreign agricultural 

products. We require import permits for a variety of imported agricultural commodities. As 

appropriate based on pest and/or disease risk, we also require imports to be accompanied by 

official sanitary or phytosanitary certification indicating that any associated risk has been 

sufficiently mitigated. APHIS requires that certain approved plant products, such as bulbs from 

Holland, undergo and pass preclearance inspection in the country of origin before being shipped 

to the United States. USDA may also require that commodities undergo treatment—such as 

fumigation or dipping for cattle fever ticks—and/or mandatory quarantine prior to being allowed 

entry into the United States. As you can see, USDA’s overseas and risk reduction activities play 

a critical role in helping to mitigate foreign pest and disease risks in the country of origin rather 

than in the United States.

At Ports of Entry

Through its Agricultural Quarantine Inspection (AQI) program, APHIS works in tandem with 

CBP to address the risk of foreign pests and diseases entering the country at ports of entry, either 

through the movement of people or commodities. Under the Homeland Security Act of 2002, 

USDA maintained responsibility for establishing the regulations, policies, and procedures that 

govern the import of agricultural products, and CBP became responsible for conducting the 

actual inspections at ports. APHIS directs CBP on what pests and diseases to look for and which 

pathways pose the highest risk, shares information on new and emerging pests and diseases, and 

trains CBP agricultural specialists in how to enforce our agricultural import regulations. CBP 

inspections target the highest-risk cargo, as well as travelers most likely to be carrying 

agricultural products. APHIS provides insect identification services to assist CBP officials in 

distinguishing common pests from pests of concern, and monitors the application of treatments 

that at-risk shipments must undergo at ports of entry before being allowed to enter American 

markets. We also station veterinarians at ports of entry to provide guidance on inspecting animal 

products to allow for safe entry.

Importations of nursery stock and other propagative plant materials can serve as significant 

pathways for invasive pests and diseases. To reduce the risks associated with such imports, 

APHIS requires that certain imported plant materials enter the United States through one of its 

plant inspection stations, which are located at ports-of-entry throughout the country at major 

international airports and seaports, and at major crossings along the U.S.-Mexican border. 
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APHIS specialists at these stations inspect shipments to ensure that imported plants and seeds do 

not contain pests and diseases of regulatory significance. In FY 2015, our inspectors cleared 

more than 19,000 imported shipments containing 1.5 billion plant units and over 700,000

kilograms of seeds. Through these inspections, they intercepted more than 800 reportable pests. 

In addition, the stations conducted more than 500 treatments remediating pests on more than 4.2 

million plant units and more than 350,000 kilograms of seed. 

On the animal side of things, APHIS operates Animal Import Centers for importations of animals 

and animal-derived materials to ensure that exotic animal diseases are not introduced into the 

United States. Animals that are susceptible to or are capable of carrying diseases or pests that 

could seriously endanger U.S. domestic livestock or poultry must be imported through a U.S. 

animal import center and are inspected, tested, and quarantined depending on the species and 

origin. APHIS also has border inspection facilities along the southern and northern U.S. borders 

for inspecting cattle and other livestock transiting from Mexico and Canada.

Inside the United States

Expanding international trade is good for our farmers, our consumers, our economy, and the 

world. However, the increasing movement of people and goods means that foreign pest and 

disease introductions are a very real threat. Outbreaks can halt the movement of agricultural 

products, having serious economic impacts on farmers, growers, and exporters, and in the case of 

zoonotic disease, may affect humans. 

To counter this threat, APHIS’ efforts to safeguard America’s agriculture and environment 

continue inside the United States, so that we can quickly detect any foreign plant and animal 

pests and diseases that may have evaded our other safeguarding measures. Critical to this effort 

is the surveillance we and our state partners conduct throughout the country. Early pest detection 

is important to avert economic and environmental damage; once a pest or disease becomes 

established or spreads significantly, the mitigation costs can reach millions of dollars. This is in 

addition to lost farm revenues, damage to ecosystems, and loss of foreign markets.

Our PPQ program, along with State cooperators, carries out plant pest surveys through the 

Cooperative Agricultural Pest Survey (CAPS) Program. CAPS targets high-risk hosts and 

commodities, gathers data about pests specific to a commodity, and provides accurate 

assessments of pest distribution, including pest-free areas for use in support of U.S. exports. In 

FY 2015, APHIS and cooperators conducted CAPS 259 surveys in 50 States and 3 territories. 

The program targeted 118 high-risk pests of national concern for survey in corn, small grains, 

soybean, nursery crops and other commodities, as well as exotic wood boring bark beetles and 

cyst nematodes, along with an additional 130 pests of State concern. 

VS conducts routine surveillance for foreign, emerging, and endemic animal diseases, including 

bovine tuberculosis, foot and mouth disease, avian influenza, and scrapie, as well as for disease 

vectors such as the cattle fever tick. This surveillance is done through a number of surveillance 

streams, including testing at slaughter facilities, livestock markets, shows, sales, buying stations, 

on-farm, and at rendering facilities. As an example, in FY 2015, VS tested over 2 million cattle 
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for brucellosis, over 40,000 sheep and goats for scrapie, and over 190,000 swine for 

pseudorabies.

Consistent with our One Health approach to animal diseases, our Wildlife Services (WS) 

program also monitors wildlife for diseases that could potentially spread to livestock or impact 

humans. Their longstanding efforts monitoring for highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) in 

wild birds were highlighted during the disease outbreak in poultry farms last year. Since last 

July, they have sampled over 43,000 wild birds in an enhanced surveillance effort, which can 

serve as an early warning system for HPAI in commercial poultry. Another important effort they 

undertake is disease testing of feral swine that they remove through the National Feral Swine 

Damage Management Program. In FY 2015, WS tested over 2,800 feral swine samples for five 

diseases of national concern, finding, for example, that 18% were positive for Pseudorabies, a 

disease that APHIS and U.S. industry eradicated from the domestic swine population in 2004.

Laboratory and diagnostic services are essential components of the U.S. plant and animal health 

surveillance infrastructure. On the plant side, APHIS relies on its Center for Plant Health 

Science and Technology (CPHST), which develops, validates, and conducts diagnostic testing 

for plant pathogens, develops digital pest identification tools, and supports our pest management 

and eradication efforts. Our National Veterinary Services Laboratories (NVSL) serves as the 

only national reference and confirmatory laboratory for APHIS animal health programs, and 

participated in over 1,000 foreign animal disease investigations last year. To expand our 

capacity to detect and diagnose pests and diseases and ramp up during emergency situations, we 

also support the National Plant Diagnostic Network (NPDN) of 55 labs and the National Animal 

Health Laboratory Network (NAHLN) of 62 laboratories.

We also recognize the risk posed by smuggled or improperly imported agricultural products and 

address this vulnerability through our smuggling interdiction and trade compliance (SITC) 

program. Our SITC program is responsible for intelligence gathering and other anti-smuggling 

activities, such as secondary market and warehouse inspections, that help prevent animal and 

plant pests and diseases from entering the United States. When SITC personnel identify 

smuggled product, they not only remove it from the market but also conduct a full investigation 

to identify and eliminate any illegal pathways. SITC also conducts market surveys and trend 

analysis and uses various intelligence tools and data systems to track products that have entered 

through our borders. In FY 2015, APHIS seized over 230,000 pounds of prohibited and/or 

restricted plants and plant products and meat and meat products and an additional 65,000 pounds 

of recalled product.

Emergency Response

In conjunction with our prevention and surveillance efforts, we acknowledge the absolute 

necessity of being able to respond swiftly and in a coordinated manner should a serious pest or 

disease be detected. APHIS has the authority and the ability to respond quickly and effectively 

to the identification of new pests and diseases. In addition, APHIS has specific emergency 

response guidelines for many of the pests and diseases that pose a significant threat to the United 

States. We’ve developed these response plans in conjunction with our Federal, State, and local 

partners, with whom we conduct exercises to test our preparedness. To ensure maximum speed 
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and effectiveness, we have rapid response teams stationed around the country ready to travel to 

detection sites to coordinate Federal containment and eradication efforts. In such situations, our 

goal is to minimize impacts to U.S. producers and disruptions to trade.

We have in place an incident command approach to emergency response. Incident command 

places teams of emergency personnel and managers directly in the field to coordinate response 

efforts. By virtue of their placement and size, the teams and their commanders have a high level 

of autonomy, are able to respond quickly to new or evolving situations, and can provide 

extremely timely information to decision makers. In addition, teams from various local, State, 

and Federal agencies all speak the same language when working an emergency and can tap into a 

wider network of resources. We saw this in January, when APHIS was able to quickly deploy an 

incident management team to Indiana at the first sign of disease, enabling the Agency and the 

State to swiftly eradicate an outbreak of HPAI.

In the event of an outbreak, the Secretary of Agriculture has emergency transfer authority under 

the Animal Health Protection Act and Plant Protection Act to obtain funding to combat a pest or

disease, just as he did with the outbreak of HPAI last year. This can include funding for 

indemnity, to allow APHIS to compensate a producer if we must destroy his plants or animals as 

part of our response. 

Responding to HPAI in 2015 put to test all of our emergency preparedness and response 

infrastructure and plans. While we were successful in eradicating the disease, we learned a lot 

and continue to reflect on the lessons learned and take steps to improve our response. Further, of 

the more than 1,000 foreign animal disease investigations that we participated in last year, the 

vast majority turned out to be minor illness. This shows the vigilance, both within APHIS and 

with our partners in the states and industry, to quickly respond when there may be a potential 

threat to U.S. livestock health.

2015 was a very challenging year on the plant health side as well. We found more exotic fruit 

flies than we have in the past 20 years, and we had 12 fruit fly outbreaks in California, Florida, 

Puerto Rico, and Texas, compared to 4 the year before. Thirteen other new significant pest and 

pathogen species were detected through our pest surveys or other reports, including Old world 

bollworm in Florida, which attacks crops valued annually in the United States at approximately

$78 billion (Kriticos, et al, 2015). Old world bollworm can affect 180 species of wild and 

cultivated hosts including rice, sugarcane, tomatoes, potatoes, cotton, and beans. Despite the 

challenges to our plant health safeguarding system in 2015, the good news is that we are 

demonstrating through our cooperative efforts that we can rapidly detect, contain, and eradicate 

these pests. For example, we have already eradicated 10 of the fruit fly outbreaks from 2015. 

We also anticipate being able to declare eradication of European grapevine moth in late 2016.

Through the combined actions of APHIS’ domestic fruit fly and pest surveillance and response 

programs, we are working to ensure that new and exotic plant pests do not establish in the United 

States, thereby protecting U.S. agriculture and the environment while keeping our export markets 

open. 
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Expanding our Ability to Protect the United States

Safeguarding U.S. agriculture and ensuring that we are prepared for any sanitary or 

phytosanitary threats against it is a huge undertaking, but it is one that we and our partners in the 

federal, state, and local governments, industry, and stakeholders are fully committed to. I’d like 

to mention two other initiatives aimed at expanding our ability to be successful.

In the 2008 Farm Bill, and again in the 2014 Farm Bill, Congress recognized the great role that 

pests and diseases of plants play in the safety and security of our food supply, and in making our 

U.S. agricultural economy and local communities prosperous. This Committee, along with your 

counterpart in the Senate, created the Plant Pest and Disease Management and Disaster 

Prevention program, which has proven quite a success in extending our ability to protect, detect, 

and respond to plant pests and diseases. Through this program, APHIS has funded more than 

2,600 projects in 50 States and 2 U.S. territories since 2009, allowing cooperators across the 

country to put innovative ideas into action with Farm Bill funds. Projects have included 

enhanced molecular diagnostics for pests such as fruit flies. We have been able to extend the 

reach of our traditional CAPS surveillance each year, with an additional 80 taxon and 

commodity surveys supported in FY 2015. The Farm Bill also funds New Pest Response

Guidelines, which serve to jumpstart preparation of site- or situation-specific action plans for 

high consequence plant pests and diseases so we can be prepared should they invade the United 

States. Other projects target domestic inspection activities such as detector dogs that can identify 

pests in mail facilities, as well as mitigations to help eradicate or contain pests. This program 

has been a true success, helping APHIS, the states, and stakeholders further protect U.S. 

agriculture.

Second, I would like to mention our proposal in the FY 2017 President’s budget request to 

bolster our animal health readiness capacity. One of the biggest lessons we learned in 

responding to last year’s HPAI outbreak was that we could build on the Agency’s existing 

capacity to effectively address large animal health events. Unfortunately, our current funding 

level for animal health activities is below levels that were available to us 10 years ago, and 

APHIS has seen a reduction of more than 200 animal health professionals in that time. The need 

to rebuild our capacity is critical, and we have requested an additional $30 million to address this 

need. If provided by Congress, we will use most of the funds to hire veterinarians and animal 

health technicians to rebuild our field force and strengthen our ability to respond to animal health 

emergencies. 

In conclusion, APHIS’ core mission is to protect the health of U.S. agriculture and we have a 

myriad of other programs and initiatives, all aimed at this vital cause. While I haven’t mentioned 

every one of them today, I hope I have provided a broad overview of our goals and efforts in this 

area. I assure you that my Agency, and USDA, are committed to doing all we can to protect U.S. 

plant, animal, and human health from the threats posed by pests and diseases. I’d be happy to 

answer any questions.