About Our Work
Disease control and eradication measures include quarantines to stop the movement of possibly infected or exposed animals, testing and examination to detect infection, destruction of infected (sometimes exposed) animals to prevent further disease spread, treatment to eliminate parasites, vaccination in some cases, and cleaning and disinfection of contaminated premises.
APHIS animal health programs are carried out by a field force of about 250 veterinarians and 360 lay inspectors working out of area offices (usually located in State capital cities). Laboratory support for these programs is supplied by APHIS' National Veterinary Services Laboratories (NVSL) at Ames, IA, and Plum Island, NY, which are centers of excellence in the diagnostic sciences and an integral part of APHIS' animal health programs.
Under the Virus-Serum-Toxin Act of 1913, APHIS enforces regulations to assure that animal vaccines and other veterinary biologics are safe, pure, potent, and effective. Veterinary biologics are products designed to diagnose, prevent, or treat animal diseases. They are used to protect or diagnose disease in a variety of domestic animals, including farm animals, household pets, poultry, fish, and fur bearers.
In contrast to animal medicines, drugs, or chemicals—all of which are regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration—veterinary biologics are derivatives of living organisms. Unlike some pharmaceutical products, most biologics leave no chemical residues in animals. Furthermore, most disease organisms do not develop resistance to the immune response produced by a veterinary biologic.
Veterinarians and other professionals in APHIS' Center for Veterinary Biologics regulate and license all veterinary biologics as well as the facilities where they are produced. They also inspect and monitor the production of veterinary biologics, including both genetically engineered products and products produced by conventional means. Necessary tests of veterinary biologics are conducted at the NVSL.
APHIS also regulates the licensing and production of genetically engineered vaccines and other veterinary biologics. These products range from diagnostic kits for feline leukemia virus to genetically engineered vaccines to prevent pseudorabies, a serious disease affecting swine. With the pseudorabies vaccines, test kits have been developed to distinguish between infected animals and those vaccinated with genetically engineered vaccines.
