Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service
The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) is an agency of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) based in Riverdale, Maryland responsible for protecting animal health, animal welfare, and plant health. APHIS is the lead agency for collaboration with other agencies to protect U.S. agriculture from invasive pests and diseases. APHIS's PPQ is the National Plant Protection Organization for the U.S.,[8] and the agency's head of veterinary services/veterinary Deputy Administrator is the Chief Veterinary Officer of the United States.[5]
This article is about a division of the United States Department of Agriculture. For agriculture extensions in general, see Agricultural extension.Agency overview
1972[1]
- Office of Entomologist, Agricultural Section, U.S. Patent Office[2]
- Treasury Cattle Commission[2]
- Federal Horticultural Board[2]
4700 River Road, Riverdale, Md 20737
Healthy and profitable American agriculture provides food and clothing for countless people worldwide and is a key pillar of our economy
8,000[3]
$2.015 billion FY2021[4]
- Kevin Shea (since 2013)[5], Administrator
- Animal Care (AC)
- Biotechnology Regulatory Services (BRS)
- International Services and Trade Support Team (IS)
- Plant Protection and Quarantine (PPQ)
- Veterinary Services (VS)
- Wildlife Service (WS)
- Beagle Brigade
- Investigative and Enforcement Services (IES)[6][7]
History[edit]
APHIS was created in 1972 by Secretary's Memorandum No. 1769.[1]
The origins of the agency predate creation of USDA, to 1854 when the Office of Entomologist, Agricultural Section, U.S. Patent Office was created. It was the first of three agencies that eventually were merged to form APHIS.[2] In 1881, a Cattle Commission was created in the Department of the Treasury that three years later was transferred to USDA.[2] Plant quarantine functions followed in 1912 when USDA's Federal Horticultural Board was created. Between the 1880s and 1930s, these evolved into the USDA Bureaus of Entomology, of Animal Industry, and of Plant Quarantine, respectively.[2]
In 1953, those three bureaus were made into the new Agricultural Research Service.[1] In 1971, the animal and plant regulatory functions were separated from ARS to create a new entity known as Animal and Plant Health Services. In 1972, the meat and poultry inspection divisions of the Consumer and Marketing Service (later known as the Agricultural Marketing Service) were added to APHS, thus creating the contemporary APHIS.[9][1]
In 2003, many APHIS agricultural border inspectors were transferred to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, a unit of the newly created U.S. Department of Homeland Security.[10]
APHIS is the primary agency responsible for responding to animal and plant disease(s) and pest emergencies as well as to other emergencies as set forth by the National Response Plan (NRP) completed in 2005 (APHIS Strategic Plan 2003–2008).
APHIS celebrated its 50th anniversary on April 2, 2022.[11]
Budget[edit]
APHIS has a budget of approximately $800 million annually and employs about 7,000 people, about 5,000 of which are deployed as inspectors at ports, borders and on farms.
In 2005, the USDA OIG published a report which identified numerous failures on the part of APHIS’ Animal Care (AC) unit to adequately enforce the AWA, including:
The OIG audit further reported that at almost one-third of facilities, IACUCs failed to ensure that principal investigators (PIs) considered alternatives to painful procedures; the report cites this failure on the part of IACUCs as being the most frequent AWA violation at animal research facilities.[17]
In 2014, The USDA's Office of the Inspector General (OIG) criticized the Service for a number of issues including its failure to efficiently allocate resources and its failure to administer appropriate fines for animal welfare violations among other issues. The report found the Service conducted inspections at facilities that did not have any animals regulated under the Animal Welfare Act (AWA). According to the report, “[Animal Care] did not make the best use of its limited resources, which could have been assigned to inspect other more problematic facilities, including breeders, dealers, and exhibitors.” The Service was also criticized for prematurely closing cases that involved “grave (e.g., animal deaths) or repeat welfare violations.” When the service did levy fines against institutions for AWA violations, the Inspector General's report found “penalties that were reduced by an average of 86 percent from... authorized maximum penalty per violation. Consequently, 26 of the 30 violators in our sample received” and that the Service “grant[ed] good faith reductions without merit or us[ed] a smaller number of violations than the actual number.” According to the USDA's report, APHIS agreed with the findings and will begin implanting reforms.[18]
On 4 February 2017, the USDA Animal Care Search Tool, a searchable database containing documents with details about the animals held by individual US animal research facility together with inspection and action reports, was removed from public access, with a stated reason of protecting personal information. The removal affects inspection reports, research facility annual reports, regulatory correspondence (such as official warnings), and certain enforcement records. Information from these documents can now only be requested via a Freedom of Information Act inquiry.[19] This removal has been criticized as substantially limiting information on animal care in US institutions, and of inhibiting access to what is still available.[20]
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