Overview:
HPAI is a highly infectious and deadly viral disease primarily affecting birds, resulting in significant poultry mortalities & occasional fatal infections in humans, thus necessitating extensive surveillance and biosecurity measures. Quarantine and movement restriction are employed as a primary tool to stem the further spread of the virus in the United States. Movement of poultry and poultry products, however, are allowed from the premises which have approved biosecurity measures in place and can show HPAI negative test results. The permitted movement allows for the continuity of business and security of the food supply in the US.
Response to HPAI and Designation of Control Area
Maryland Department of Agriculture immediately responds to any outbreak of Avian Influenza in poultry premises. Movement Control and Quarantine is imposed on the premises and adjoining areas if H5 or H7 subtype of influenza is detected. This helps to stop the spread of the virus from the infected premises to non-infected premises. The area immediately surrounding the infected premises is designated as an Infected zone with the perimeter lying at least 3 km from the premises. A buffer zone is set up at least 7 km from the perimeter of the Infected Zone. A HPAI Control Area comprises of the infected zone and the buffer zone with the minimum radius of 10 km. Surveillance and Vaccination Zone can be set up depending upon the epidemiological situation of the outbreak. Within the Control Area, movement of poultry, poultry products, manure, feed, garbage, and other poultry related products will be through permit only.
What is a permit and who issues the permit for poultry movement?
A permit is a document, or a license issued by USDA that grants permission for the poultry producers to move their products into, within, or outside the Control Area during HPAI outbreak. USDA issues the permit license after careful evaluation of the information provided by the producer in the EMRS2 system. There are two types of permits issued for the movement to and from the HPAI Control Area: Continuity of Business Permit and Specific Permit.
Do all products require Permit to move?
Permits are necessary when transporting live broilers, meat products, hatched and unhatched eggs, litter, garbage, feed, and mortality to and from the designated Control Area. Tracked conveyances refer to movements that are recorded in EMRS2 but do not need a permit, such as pasteurized liquid egg inspected by the Food Safety and Inspection Service. Routine movements, on the other hand, do not require a permit, but the producer may need to maintain detailed records. These routine movements, like service crews or equipment pick-ups, are not tracked in EMRS2.
How to initiate Permit Request?
Maryland Department of Agriculture uses the USDA Emergency Management Response System 2.0 (EMRS2) for issuing movement permits. EMRS2 is a USDA APHIS system of digitally documenting all animal health outbreaks in the US. The EMRS2 Customer Permit Gateway is a newly designed secure web application which facilitates permit requests for the registered producers. Registered Producers can initiate a permit request through the Gateway. The requests are reviewed by EMRS2 specialists and in the order in which they are received there. The request is first sent to the state of origin for review and later to the destination state. After the approval from both states and evaluation of flock health and biosecurity plan in place, a permit is generated to move a specific product to a specific destination. After the approval, producers can download the permit from the Gateway. Producers can now initiate product movement by entering the permitted movement in the Gateway within the permit period.
Requirements to obtain a Movement Permit
To obtain a permit for the movement of poultry and poultry products, the application should include an approved biosecurity plan made according to the NPIP guidelines. The biosecurity plan must be evaluated by the Maryland Department of Agriculture and the evaluation form must be submitted as well. The evaluation should be provisioned well before any outbreak occurs in the area. The biosecurity plan and the evaluation form may be submitted to the EMRS2 system through the Gateway. In many situations, negative test results of the flock and provision of vehicle and driver biosecurity are also required to initiate a movement. The permitting requirements can be found here.
How does Secure Poultry Supply (SPS) plan help in the permitting process?
The SPS plan consists of several elements, including the approval of biosecurity plans, conducting surveillance testing, and conducting risk assessments for flocks that require a movement permit for birds or eggs. The Secure Poultry Supply Plan is further divided into four specific plans: the Secure Egg Supply Plan, the Secure Turkey Supply Plan, the Secure Broiler Supply Plan, and the Secure Upland Game Bird Supply Plan. These individual plans provide detailed guidance tailored to each sector, and they utilize the NPIP Standard E as a template for creating biosecurity plans. It is important that the biosecurity plans have been evaluated and approved by the Maryland Department of Agriculture preceding the permit request.
Important Permitting Links
- Control Area Designation Overview
- EMRS2 Customer Gateway Overview
- NPIP Standard E-Biosecurity Plan Template for Farms
- Latest data on Confirmed HPAI outbreak in the USA
Acknowledgment:
This work is supported by the Smith-Lever Special Needs Competitive Grant, project grant number 2022-41210-38062, from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture and the University of Maryland, College Park. ( you can add logos for UMD and USDA NIFA as you see fit)
Project Title: Biosecurity Compliance Audits to Prevent Outbreaks of HPAI and Risk-Based Planning to Improve Outbreak Response.
Project Team: Dr. Nathaniel Tablante, Dr. Mostafa Ghanem,Dr. Jonathan Moyle, Jennifer Rhodes, and Maegan Purdue, Madhusudan Timilsina