USAHA News
United States Animal Health Association
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For immediate release:

MOST STATES NOW IN NATIONAL ANIMAL HEALTH REPORTING SYSTEM

        GREENSBORO, N.C., Oct. 27, 2004   By September 2004, all but nine states were
participating in the National Animal Health Reporting System (NAHRS), and five of these were
slated to start participation by the end of the year.

     This information was presented to the joint USAHA/AAVLD Committee on Animal
Health Information Systems at its meeting here this week.  In 2003, 40 states participated in the
NAHRS, with 36 of them reporting throughout the year.  

     Reporting of animal disease will be facilitated in the near future through a newly
developed Web-based reporting tool.  To be piloted in November 2004, it will be made available
to all states by February 2005.  

     The committee also heard a report from USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection
Servie (APHIS) on a strategic plan of its National Animal Health Surveillance System (NAHSS),
which is currently being staffed and implemented.  The strategic plan will create a roadmap to
transform current and future animal disease surveillance activities into the NAHSS to provide
greater protection of animal populations from endemic, emerging and foreign animal diseases. 
The plan defines major goals, including early detection and global risk surveillance of foreign
animal diseases and emerging disease; enhanced surveillance for current eradication and control
programs; and monitoring and surveillance for diseases of major impact on production and
marketing.

     A report on the information technology component of the National Animal Health
Laboratory Network (NAHLN) was also presented.  Data sharing among animal health agencies
has to be bolstered, and a secure, two-way communications network and a national repository for
animal health data needs to be created.  Five of the 12 laboratories identified for the first phase of
the NAHLN have been selected for an information technology pilot project.  They include state
laboratories in California, Colorado, Iowa and Washington as well as APHIS' National
Veterinary Services Laboratories in Ames, Iowa.

     The committee urged federal agencies to provide adequate funds for the NAHLN.

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