The US Department of Agriculture recently announced a new program designed to track animal illnesses in order to prevent major disease outbreaks.
The fear of tainted food and the spread of zoonotic diseases has become increasingly problematic in recent years. In the last two years there have been a series of foodborne illness outbreaks, with the worst being an outbreak of listeria spread by Colorado cantaloupes. In addition, Pennsylvania’s recent outbreak of chronic wasting disease in deer farms has raised the specter of animal-based pandemics.
The USDA recently announced the planned creation of a mandatory animal tracking program that would allow agriculture officials to follow the spread of animal diseases in order to better allow farmers to contain the spread of potentially dangerous illnesses.
The proposal is the second effort by the USDA to manage animal illnesses, the first being a voluntary program that many farmers wrote off as too much of a hassle.
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Written by: Justin Ellison / Farm Plus Staff Writer