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Animal health needs to be in next farm bill

A veterinarian says the highly pathogenic avian influenza outbreak in 2015 has created a greater need for animal health to be included in the next farm bill.

“State animal health officials across this country are in support of trying to put some initiatives in the farm bill that would range from indemnification to making sure we can stamp out and get the disease off the landscape in a timely manner.  Secondly is trying to improve our data bank of vaccines for Food and Mouth disease because that’s the granddaddy of all foreign animal diseases.”  Dr. James Averill, state veterinarian for Michigan, tells Brownfield there’s also a greater need to improve diagnostic labs across the country.

The highly pathogenic avian influenza outbreak was the largest animal disease outbreak the U.S. has ever experienced, costing the federal government more than a billion dollars to respond.

Averill says the first step in preventing disease outbreaks is practicing good biosecurity, but it’s not a sure thing.  “Having good biosecurity practices reduces the need for having some of those other things but biosecurity is not 100 percent and we need to be working on these too.”

Averill says he’s also part of a workgroup in Michigan that’s streamlining legislation in the state that will make reporting foreign animal diseases more adaptable to the needs of the industry.

Brownfield spoke with Averill during the recent Michigan Pork Symposium in Lansing.

AUDIO: Interview with Dr. James Averill

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