GAO: USDA botched handling of pig viruses
WASHINGTON — The Agriculture Department has not done enough to prepare for more animal disease outbreaks, the Government Accountability Office said Thursday following a review of USDA's handling of recent viruses that killed millions of pigs in Iowa and other states.
The GAO, the independent investigative arm of Congress, said the USDA does not have adequate processes in place to ensure its own rules on how to respond to an outbreak are followed. The bipartisan agency also found that even though the USDA has improved its ability to respond by drafting new guidance, it has failed to define key parts of its response plan such as roles and responsibilities.
“While much has been accomplished, opportunities remain to improve USDA’s ability to respond to the risks posed by emerging animal diseases,” the GAO said in its report. “Without a clearly defined response plan to such emerging animal diseases, response efforts could be slowed.”
The GAO was asked to review the USDA’s response to two highly contagious diseases in pigs — Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea (PED) virus in 2013 and Porcine Deltacoronavirus (PDCoV) in 2014. Iowa, the nation’s largest pork producer, was the hardest-hit state, with an estimated 2.6 million pigs killed and lost profits for producers.
The GAO said during the initial stage of the PED outbreak, USDA did not take the regulatory action needed, such as requiring reporting of infected herds. It was not until June 2014 that USDA required such reports. The GAO also found the USDA conceded it did not follow its own guidance that calls for conducting epidemiological investigations at the onset of the outbreak. As a result, USDA did not conduct timely investigations at the locations of the first infected herds, and may never be able to determine the source of outbreak.
Rep. Fred Upton, R-Mich., who requested the GAO report in July 2014, expressed concern with the findings.
“It’s troubling that not only did USDA not follow their own guidance on investigations at the start of the outbreak, but that USDA officials knew they were not following procedure,” said Upton, who is chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. “Where will USDA go from here? That’s the million-dollar question that must be answered before the next outbreak.”
GAO suggested USDA develop a process to help ensure its guidance for investigation of animal diseases is followed and clarify and document how it will respond to emerging diseases, including defining roles and responsibilities.
In commenting on the report, USDA said it agreed with the recommendations and was working on implementing them before the report came out.
A spokesperson with USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service said the agency is always looking to improve the processes it uses to help farmers and ranchers and protect animals and plants. "We had not faced anything like this before, and learned a great deal from it about our response strategy, and are now using that knowledge to work with our partners and stakeholders to implement our emerging diseases framework objectives in a transparent way," APHIS said.
The Iowa Pork Producers Association said it was reviewing the report.
Dermot Hayes, an economist at Iowa State University, said when the PED virus emerged it was expected that producers would soon know how it spread and find ways to control it -- something that took longer than anyone, including the USDA, could have anticipated. He acknowledged USDA officials were dealing with a fast-spreading disease.
"I suspect that some of the actions described as not following protocol were made by harried officials trying to apply common sense to a unique situation," Hayes said. "If this report results in a hair trigger, sky is falling response to every new strand of any potentially important disease then the industry may be worse off. The decision to make a disease notifiable is a serious one and it does have costs for the industry."
Contact Christopher Doering at cdoering@usatoday.com or reach him at Twitter: @cdoering