Animal and Plant Inspection Service ( APHIS ) is an agency of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) responsible for protecting animal health, animal welfare and plant health. APHIS is the principal institution to collaborate with other agencies to protect US agriculture from invasive pests and diseases. APHIS is a National Plant Protection Authority for the US government, and head of veterinary services is the Head of the United States Veterinary Officer.
Video Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service
History
APHIS was created in 1972 by Secretary Memorandum No. 1769.
The origin of the agency preceded the creation of the USDA, until 1854 when the Entomolog Office, Agricultural Section, US Patent Office was established. This is the first of the three institutions that were eventually combined to form APHIS. In 1881, the Cow Commission was established at the Treasury that three years later was transferred to the USDA. The plant quarantine function was followed in 1912 when the USDA Federal Horticulture Council was formed. Between the 1880s and 1930s it evolved into the USDA Bureau of Entomology, Animal Industry, and Plant Quarantine, respectively.
In 1953 the three bureaus were incorporated into the Agricultural Research Service. In 1971, the animal and plant management functions were separated from ARS to create a new entity known as Animal and Plant Health Services. In 1972, the meat and poultry inspection division of Consumer and Service Marketing (later known as Agricultural Marketing Services) was added to APHS, thus creating contemporary APHIS.
In 2003, many APHIS agricultural border inspectors were transferred to the US Customs and Border Protection, a unit of the newly created US Department of Homeland Security.
APHIS is the primary agency responsible for response to animal and plant diseases and pest emergencies as well as other emergencies as established by the National Response Plan (NRP) completed in 2005 (APHIS Strategic Plan 2003-2008).
Maps Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service
Duties and responsibilities
The initial goal of APHIS was to "protect the animal and plant resources of the nation" and implement a "poultry and meat check program." A more modern articulation of APHIS's mission is "to protect and promote the health of US agriculture, regulate genetically modified organisms, manage the Animal Welfare Act and implement wildlife damage management activities."
APHIS aims to protect American animals, plants, and agricultural industries by offering:
- Protection from invasive non-native plants, animals, insects, and diseases
- Monitoring and management of existing agricultural pests and diseases
- Resolution and management of trade issues related to animal or plant health
- Prevention or cessation of inhumane (animal) treatment
Threats and challenges within the scope of APHIS include:
- Unsuitable biotech events
- Invasive Species
- Agricultural animals/plant health threats
- Agricultural Bioterrorism
- Obstacles of sanitary and phytosanitary trade
- Conflict and disease of wild animals
- Zoonotic Disease
- Animal welfare issues
APHIS is given special authority under some federal laws:
Animal Health Protection Act , 7 USCÃ, 8301 et seq. Organize the prevention, detection, control and eradication of animal diseases and pests, where "animals" are defined as "every member of the animal kingdom (except humans)." 7 U.S.C.Ã, Ã,Ã, 8302 (1) (West 2009).
The Animal Welfare Act (Laboratory Welfare Act of 1966) , 7 USC Ã,§ 2131 et seq. Originally intended to prevent pet theft being sold to research facilities, AWA now widely regulates minimum standards of animal care and care in research, exhibition, transportation, and by dealers. This frees birds, mice, or rats raised for use in research, horses not used for research, cold-blooded animals, and all farm animals used in the production of "food and fiber." It provides licenses and registration of all dealers and animal exhibitors.
Horse Protection Act , 15 USCÃ,§§§ 1821-1831 Prohibits a horse subject to a process called "soring" (injecting or applying chemicals to the horse's hooves to accentuate its gait) from participating and transported to exhibitions, sales, shows, or auctions.
Animal Damage Control Act of March 2, 1931 , 7 USCÃ,§Ã,§ 426-426c Provides wide authority for investigation, demonstration and control of "adverse animal species" (mammalian, animal predators rodents and birds.) Changed in 1991 to prevent accidental introduction of snake trees to other parts of the United States from Guam.
Lacey Act, 16 USC 夤 3371-3378 Make it illegal for anyone to import, export, transport, sell, receive, obtain, or buy fish or wildlife or plants anything that is taken, owned, transported or sold in violation of US law, treaty or regulation or violates Indian ethnic law either in interstate or foreign trade.
Plant Protection Act , 7 U.S.C.Ã,§ 7701 et seq. Consolidate all or part of the ten existing USDA crop health legislation into one comprehensive law. Gives the USDA the authority to regulate and prohibit or restrict imports, exports, and intergovernmental movements of plants, crop products, certain biological control organisms, toxic weeds, and plant pests.
Federal Bibit Act, Title III , 7 U.S.C. Ã,§Ã,§Ã, 1551-1611 Requires accurate labeling and purity standards for seeds in trade, and prohibits the importation and movement of contaminated or misguided seeds.
Honeybee Act , 7 USC Ã,§Ã,§Ã, 281-286 Prohibits or limits imports or ingestion of honeybees and watermelon into or through the United States to prevent the introduction and spread of dangerous diseases and parasites for honeybees, as well as genetically unwanted germplasm and undesirable bee species.
The animal quarantine law: 21 USCÃ,§Ã, 101 allows the President, by proclamation, to suspend the import of all or any class of animals for a limited time, at any time, according to him, the need for animal protection in United States against infectious or contagious diseases.
21 U.S.C.Ã,§ 113 authorizes the Secretary of Agriculture to establish research facilities for nail and oral diseases and other animal diseases that "in the opinion of the Secretary" constitute a threat to US livestock. Strict control mandates for live virus use at the research facility. Allow the Secretary to employ up to five technical or scientific experts on a GS-18 maximum paygrade. (This appears to be one of the most prescriptive laws administered by the USDA.)
21 U.S.C.Ã, 114i authorizes the Secretary of Agriculture to create and implement a program for the eradication of pseudorabies in the pig population of the United States.
Virus-Serum-Toxin Act , 21 U.S.C.Ã,§Ã,§Ã, 151-158
Organization
APHIS is divided into six operational program units:
- Animal Care (AC): Determine and promote standard care and humane animal care through inspection and educational endeavors.
- Biotechnology Regulatory Services (BRS): Protect agricultural and natural resources by ensuring the safe development of genetically engineered organisms using a science-based regulatory framework.
- International Services and Trade Support Team (IS): Provides international animal and plant health expertise to maintain the health of American agriculture and promote US agricultural trade.
- Crop and Quarantine Protection (PPQ): The protection of agriculture and natural resources from risks associated with the entry, establishment, or dissemination of harmful pests and weeds.
- Veterinary Services (VS): Protect and improve the health, quality, and vitality of our animals, animal products and animal biology by preventing, controlling and/or eliminating animal diseases, and monitoring, and promoting animal health and productivity.
- Wildlife Service (WS): Provides leadership to resolve wildlife conflicts and creates a balance that allows people and wildlife to live side by side in peace.
APHIS is also divided into three management support units (Legislative and Public Affairs, Marketing and Business Services Regulatory Program, and Policy and Program Development), and two offices supporting initiatives across government: the Office of Emergency Management and Homeland Security and the Office of Enforcement and Compliance Civil Rights.
APHIS Administrator at this time, Mr. Kevin Shea, was appointed in June 2013. Greg Parham, was appointed in April 2011.
The Deputy Administrator for Veterinary Services also serves as United States Animal Veterinary Officer, and represents the US Government at the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE). APHIS Plant and Quarantine Protection (PPQ) is a National Plant Protection Authority; Vice Administrator for PPQ representing the United States at the North American Plant Protection Organization and other international forums related to plant health and quarantine.
In addition to its domestic operations, APHIS International Services staff several offices abroad, including veterinary and plant health workers in US diplomatic missions and technicians who run pest and disease control and control programs.
Budget
APHIS has a budget of around $ 800 million per year and employs about 7,000 people, about 5,000 of whom are deployed as inspectors at ports, borders and on farms.
Criticism
In 2014, the USDA's Office of Inspector General (OIG) criticized the Service for a number of issues including its failure to efficiently allocate resources and its failure to manage the appropriate penalties for animal welfare breaches among other issues. The report finds that the Service performs inspections in facilities that have no animals subject to the Animal Welfare Act (AWA). According to the report, "[Veterinary Care] does not utilize its limited resources, which should be tasked with examining other more problematic facilities, including breeders, traders, and exhibitors." The service was also criticized for premature closure cases involving "graves (eg, death of animals) or repeated welfare violations." When the service levies a fine against the agency for AWA violations, the Inspector General's report finds "penalties reduced by an average of 86 percent of... maximum fines allowed per violation, resulting in 26 out of the 30 offenders in our sample receiving" and that the Service "giving [ed] a reduction of goodwill without reward or we [ed] a number of lesser offenses than the actual amount." According to the USDA report, APHIS agrees with the findings and will begin to instill the reforms.
In 2005, USDA OIG published a report identifying many failures on the part of APHIS's Animal Care Unit (AC) to adequately enforce AWA, including:
- the failure of the Eastern AC Territory to aggressively pursue "enforcement action against AWA offenders";
- failure for a fair offender, creating a climate in which "offenders consider monetary provisions as a normal cost of doing business rather than a barrier to breaking the law";
- the failure of parts of the USDA Veterinary Veterinarians (VMOs) to ensure that facilities provide them with baseline data on research facilities such as "number of animals used in the study" and the number of "unexpected animal deaths";
- failure on the part of the Institute for Institutional Veterinary Care and Use (IACUC) to effectively monitor animal care activities, in particular, animal care and review of painful procedures; and
- failure on the part of the Institute for Institutional Veterinary Care and Use (IACUC) to ensure the use of non-animal methodology in which such research sites exist.
The OIG audit further reported that in nearly one-third of the facilities, IACUC failed to ensure that principal investigators (PIs) considered alternatives to painful procedures; the report cites this failure in the IACUCs section as the most frequent AWA violation in animal research facilities.
On February 4, 2017, the USDA Veterinary Search Search Toolkit, a searchable database containing documents with details about animals held by individual US animal research facilities along with inspection and action reports, has been removed from public access, for reasons stated for protect personal information. Removals affect inspection reports, annual reports of research facilities, regulatory correspondence (such as official warnings), and certain enforcement records. Information from these documents can now only be requested through the Freedom of Information Act investigation. This abolition has been criticized for substantially limiting information on animal care in US institutions, and hampering access to what is still available.
See also
- Title 7 of the Federal Regulatory Code
- Title 9 of the Federal Regulatory Code
- Beagle Brigade
- Phytosanitary Certificate Issuance and Tracking System
- Plant Protection and Quarantine
- Sanitation and phytosanitary actions and agreements
References
Further reading
External links
Media related to Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service on Wikimedia Commons
- APHIS website
- Animal and Plant Health Check Service in the Federal List
- APHIS Program
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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