While responding privately to a listserv member, I realized that it might
be helpful if I shared this information with the list.
The USDA/APHIS has made it very difficult for us to distinguish between the
mandatory USDA scrapie eradication program and the Voluntary Scrapie
Certification program. Every sheep and goat breeder must comply with the
regulations of the National Scrapie Eradication Program. The tags are free
and the USDA assigns you a farm flock number. This program is basically an
animal identification program designed to allow an infected animal to be
traced back to its flock of origin. That is NOT the Voluntary Scrapie
Certification Program.
In the Voluntary program, a breeder basically closes his flock and can
bring in sheep only from other flocks who have enrolled in the voluntary
program. The sheep are tagged with special tamper-proof tags that must be
purchased. The flock is inspected every year by the state Veterinarian to
ensure that every animal is tagged and all records are in order. Records
must be kept for five years. If no scrapie is detected in the flock at the
end of the five-year period, then that flock is certified scrapie-free.
Consortium members (a small group of polled Barbados Blackbelly breeders)
must be enrolled in the voluntary scrapie program. This is the only way to
ensure that we can participate in any artificial insemination opportunity
between flocks or in the event we are able to import semen from Barbados or
Trinidad.
I guarantee you that if you did not understand this difference, you are NOT
enrolled in the Voluntary Scrapie Certification program. If you would like
to be, you need to call your state vet and specifically state that you wish
to enroll in this program, not the mandatory USDA scrapie eradication
program. He must inspect your flock and your records before you can be
enrolled.
To learn more about the Voluntary program, visit
http://www.aphis.usda.gov/vs/nahps/scrapie/free-certi.html
To learn more about the mandatory program, visit
http://www.aphis.usda.gov/vs/nahps/scrapie/eradicate.html
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