As the agricultural industry grapples with the recent HPAI outbreak affecting dairy cattle, state ag departments are taking proactive measures to mitigate the spread.
Nebraska and Tennessee have implemented restrictions on dairy cattle entering the states, aiming to safeguard their livestock populations. Tennessee is restricting cattle coming into the state from infected areas, and in Nebraska, a state veterinarian explains the new requirements involve a permitting process for all breeding female dairy cattle entering the state.
“What we instituted is going back to that permitting process, and this permitting process is when the veterinarian that writes the certificate of veterinary inspection or the health certificate, that veterinarian calls into our office, gives us the information on the movement prior to the animals moving and prior to him issuing the CVI. That allows us to keep track of things better, helps us know what kind of animals are coming in - are they lactating animals, are they not lactating - and allows us to have better tracking to be able to follow up if we need to follow up with those animals,” said Roger Dudley.
Dudley reassures the permitting process should not cause significant delays for farmers.
“We put this in place for 30 days, and so all the month of April, we will be having this requirement in place. We did put an end date on it because we want to make sure that we reevaluate at the end of April to decide if it’s important that we continue doing this or can we go back to the way we were doing things previously?”
