First US Animal Health Report Released

October 14, 2005 — 

On October 7th, the USDA released the first ever national overview of animal health, the 2004 U.S. Animal Health Report. The report, which will be updated annually, is the result of a recommendation arising from the Animal Health Safeguarding Review released in 2001. This review also recommended specific actions to enhance the national surveillance system for animal diseases both domestically and internationally.

The 90 page report provides a description of the animal health infrastructure and population demographics in the US as well as chapters discussing domestic disease control and eradication programs, animal health initiatives (i.e. BSE surveillance, national animal ID program, the National Animal Health Laboratory Network, etc.), and foreign animal diseases.

According to the report, Iowa was home to 26.6% of the 2004 hog inventory in the US. North Carolina was second at 16.2%. In 2004, there were 69,420 hog operations with a production value of $13.1 billion. The number of operations has declined steadily since 1994 and today 3.3% of the operations account for more than half of the hog inventory. Hogs are slaughtered at 664 of the 825 federally inspected slaughter plants, 13 of which account for 58% of the total hogs slaughtered annually. In addition, there were 2,116 state-inspected or custom-exempt slaughter plants operating on January 1, 2005.

The report provides updates on a number of disease eradication programs including scrapie, PRV and brucellosis among others. It notes that the PRV Eradication Program driven by swine producers and veterinarians with USDA cooperation had effectively eliminated PRV in US commercial swine operations by the end of 2004. Eight transitional herds were identified as infected in 2004. Transitional pigs are defined as "captured feral swine or domestic swine in contact (or potentially in contact) with feral swine". It is estimated there are approximately 3 million feral swine in at least 30 states. The report also discusses the Trichinae Certification Program and garbage feeding regulations.

Foreign (or "Transborder") animal disease prevention, control and response measures are also discussed. In 2003 and 2004, the Foreign Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory (FADDL) tested nearly 35,000 serum samples and over 1,200 tissue samples for CSF. The samples were submitted from a variety of sources including feral swine. All samples were negative. In addition to the individual disease programs, the report also provides insight into the national surveillance objectives and resources including development of the National Surveillance Unit (NSU) at the Center for Epidemiology and Animal Health (CEAH) in Ft. Collins, CO and the National Animal Health Laboratory Network (NAHLN). The NAHLN has expanded from the original 12 state and university diagnostic labs identified in 2002 to 44 labs in 37 states at the end of 2004.

Source: USDA, APHIS, VS http://www.aphis.usda.gov/lpa/pubs/2004_us_animal_health_report.pdf