Update on USDA, APHIS, VS Animal/Animal Products Tracking Project

 

Tim O'Neill, Program Analyst, USDA Veterinary Services

 

 

Vision, Mission, Objectives

The mission of Veterinary Services (VS) is to protect and improve the health, quality, and marketability of our nation's animals, animal products, and veterinary biologics by:

• Preventing, controlling and/or eliminating animal diseases.

• Monitoring and promoting animal health and productivity.

Following this VS mission is the vision for the VS Animal/Animal Products Tracking (AAPT) Project:

• To increase Veterinary Services' capability to determine the location of animals or animal products in the event that they are exposed accidentally or intentionally to a transmissible disease.

The AAPT project mission is to

• Enhance VS's ability to track animal and animal product import/export and domestic movements.

• Provide accurate and timely models and data of animal disease and animal movement in the United States.

• Allow VS & APHIS to meet its strategic goals of animal health safeguarding, homeland security, emergency preparedness, and trade enhancement.

AAPT project objectives are to:

• Provide a web-based system to collect and track domestic and imported animal commodity movement information from point of manufacture to ultimate destination.

• Provide authorized agencies access to an automated integrated intergovernmental data system.

• Provide an enhanced process that will collect appropriate data, clean data, store cleaned data, and provide data for analysis.

• Aggregate or link additional data or data sources that are needed to analyze animal/animal product flow with respect to the risk of disease.

• Link with web-enabled spatial analysis technology. This will provide APHIS analysts with spatial data and computerized analysis techniques necessary to make informed decisions.

• Provide a one stop 24/7 source of information and federal forms for individuals and businesses participating in the international & interstate movement of animals and animal products; secure necessary certifications/endorsements; and provide information about the requirements and regulations relevant to the commodity of interest

 

Implementation

The AAPT project implementation plan relies on the amplification and focusing of existing technology trends to ensure movement towards the project’s objectives.  This involves monitoring or scheduling separate iterations (projects) and allowing these projects to develop and integrate over a defined time horizon.  The defined time horizon is what helps amplify and focus the existing trends.  The consequence of this style of implementation is a system architecture that consists of many distributed data ‘nodes’ that feed information to a central data-store.  These nodes could be anyplace, and could be owned or operated by commercial, state government or federal government entities.  No primary massive database would exist.  Only information required for specific modeling, research, or emergency purposes would be compiled and held by Veterinary Services.  Several benefits are realized by using this approach:

• Creation of a redundancy of data sources, as required by homeland security, without creating a huge duplicative database.

• Reduction in the risk of total project failure in attaining VS safeguarding goals, as each small project is a separate entity.

• Reduction in the rate of obsolescence for the safeguarding/disease protection product(s), as different products and versions are used in these separate databases.

• Doesn’t have to reinvent all the processes and data sources, which results in a better value for taxpayers.

• Ensures existing database development trends move in correct direction for safeguarding goals.

An example of a trend in technology would be:

• In 1980, animal tracking data sharing was all paper or by memory.

• In 1990, information flow via computer was now practical but data sharing was still all paper and not national or coordinated.

• In 2000, mostly digital reporting existed, with some paper reporting, and both digital & paper sharing.

• In 2005, Information sharing will be all digital, all the time, both reporting and data  sharing (hopefully).

So rather than duplicating the efforts of other organizations in developing databases, the VS AAPT project endeavors to collaborate with the computerization trend of other organizations.

 

 

Process Changes

Process changes in national animal/animal product reporting are needed to meet future reporting needs. Factors to consider include:

• New reporting methods are needed to fulfill the information technology data requirements for global trade.

• Traditional eradication reporting methods are not adequate to evaluate disease monitoring for a global community.

• Consistency and transparency in data reporting of disease monitoring:

•          Standard entry of disease test results.

•          Standard procedures for statuses that report traces, quarantines and investigations.

•          Standard procedures for geo-locator codes.

• Destination of imports must be known:

•          Where animals and animal products end up needs to be known to evaluate risk of disease threat.

•          Inter-state movements of product and animals should be comparable to data collected by the European Union ,i.e. destination to the county level.

• The veterinary infrastructure has to support the data requirements of the global market place:

•          Adequate data entry personnel.

•          Training of epidemiologists and data managers in the data requirements of trade issues and global agreements.

•          Training of epidemiologists and data managers that data quality is high priority.

•          Resources should be committed to insure area and state offices collect and manage the new data requirements.

•          Groups that do not cooperate with consistency and transparency issues need to understand the economic consequences to the U.S.

 

Process change summary:

• All premises should be geo-referenced.

• Data quality is a high priority.

• Interstate movements are important.

• Permits should be reconciled.

• Risk assessment outcomes should be part of standard reporting.

 

Interstate Movements: Interstate Certificate of Veterinary Inspection (ICVI) project

 

Project goal: To develop, in cooperation and collaboration with the States and other stakeholders, an electronic version of the paper Interstate Certificate of Veterinary Inspection that will enable the tracking of domestic animal movements.

 

The ICVI project consists of several phases:

• Phase One (completed):  Convert GlobalVetLink’s OCVI software into APHIS ICVI application; and place application server at the Centers for Epidemiology and Animal Health.

• Phase Two (in-progress):  Pilot implementation in five states to identify the best methodology for nationwide implementation;  link to Veterinary Services’ Veterinarian Accreditation DB;  link to VS form VS 17-29: Declaration of Importation for Animals, Animal Semen, Birds, Poultry and Eggs for Hatching;  add identified enhancements to application.

• Phase Four (planned 2004-2005):  Implement in all states, integrate with other tracking databases: AAPT, ePermits, and Premises/Animal ID.

Mr. O’Neill acknowledges and appreciates the contributions to this presentation from the Centers for Epidemiology & Animal Health.