Animal Emergencies Illustrate Need For Disease Traceability System
US - Recent cases of pseudorabies in Wisconsin swine and a weather emergency in Colorado have demonstrated in real life how premises registration can protect livestock producers, their animals and the livestock industry.Benefits of premises registration have been “what-if?” scenarios. The need for producers to participate in premises registration is more evident in light of these recent events.
“During the pseudorabies investigation, farms that were registered could be directly contacted and the animals were quickly tested,” said Dr. Robert Ehlenfeldt, Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection (DATCP) state veterinarian. “We had to go door to door to locate animals at unregistered premises, which slowed down our ability to test for the disease.”
As part of the Wisconsin Premises Registration Act, livestock owners in Wisconsin have registered over 56,000 premises. The goal of the system is to have a comprehensive database of names, phone numbers and species locations to provide animal health officials with a tool to rapidly locate and contact owners of affected premises that may have been exposed to a contagious disease.
Source: The Dunn County News