American Cervid Alliance

USDA to Receive Funds for Chronic Wasting Disease Indemnity

January 20, 2014


On Friday, January 17, 2014, President Obama signed into law a $1.1 Trillion spending bill, which funds the federal government until the end of September. Included in the USDA-APHIS portion of the bill is $3 million that is hoped to be used for indemnity funding for the Chronic Wasting Disease program.  There is no official word of what exact portion of the funds will be available after administrative costs, but this could be extremely beneficial to the CWD positive herds within the industry.


The American Cervid Alliance would like to thank all the cervid associations and their members that contacted their Congressional leaders at home and those that traveled to Washington D.C. to press our issues. A special thank you to the North American Deer Farmers Association and the Exotic Wildlife Association for their national lobbyists’ efforts carrying the legislation forward.  This comes as great news for the industry.  


While government agencies implement policy calling for the destruction of CWD positive herds, it is essential indemnity funds are available. It is unclear for the future, but hopefully indemnity funds will be renewed every year. The ACA does acknowledge that securing indemnity funding is a huge win for the industry; however the industry must continue efforts to ensure current, proposed, and suggested Chronic Wasting Disease policy is based off sound science. Only sound policy will ensure our deer and elk farmers are not susceptible to over-reaching requirements.

 


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