APHIS Provides Additional Information on Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) Indemnity Requests

USDA APHIS Veterinary Services (VS) currently has limited indemnity funding available in FY 2015 for CWD-positive, CWD-exposed, and CWD-suspect animals. As we stated in our Stakeholder Registry announcement (on September 19, 2014),  we will prioritize the CWD-exposed animals that pose the greatest risk for spread of CWD for indemnity based on the availability of funding so that the highest-risk animals can be addressed promptly. We intend to focus our efforts on CWD-exposed animals identified in 2014 and may consider indemnity requests for exposed animals within the past 5 years based on availability of remaining federal funding and disease risk.

 

Owners that have CWD-exposed animals and are interested in requesting indemnity should contact their local VS office or State officials that regulate the farmed cervid industry in the state.  Requests will be accepted through February 6, 2015.  VS will work with owners and state officials to gather additional information and process requests.  Indemnity requests for currently known CWD-exposed animals received after February 6, 2015, will be considered if federal CWD indemnity funding remains available.    

 

Any newly reported CWD-positive herds and associated exposed animals will be considered for indemnity as they are identified, based on available funding,  and on the disease risk presented by the animals relative to other exposed animals for which indemnity requests are currently pending.  We will reassess our fiscal year indemnity funding on a quarterly basis so that providing indemnity for lower-risk exposed animals does not exhaust available funding early in the fiscal year.  That is, if the funds available for the quarter have not been used to indemnify higher-risk animals, lower-risk animals pending from previous quarter(s) will be reconsidered.

 

An official appraisal conducted by an APHIS-approved appraiser and a herd plan signed by APHIS, the State, and the owner are required to receive indemnity payment.  Any exposed animals that are confirmed positive by NVSL will result in a change of their resident herd status to positive, with appropriate state/federal regulatory actions.

 

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