It's hot. Escape the heat with air conditioning in your car or home. Or head to the lake and take a dip in the water to cool off. You have a good handful of options to dodge the brunt of the burning heat.

However, pets and livestock have far fewer choices and largely rely on us to keep them comfortable. Here are a few reminders for these balmy summer days.

If you have livestock:

• Double check the animals' water supply.
• Ensure there's an opportunity for them to seek shade.
• If sheltered indoors, ensure the ventilation system is working properly.

If you have pets:

• Make sure they have shade and a full dish of water.
• NEVER leave them in a car on a hot day.
• Look for signs of heat stress; anxiousness, excessive panting, excessive drooling, collapse.

Read more tips for pets from the AVMA.

Hot weather tips for horses from U of M Extension.

This is a reminder to veterinarians that they can provide individual official ID tags to producers or clients who are in immediate need of tags. If a producer requests a single tag, the veterinarian should supply it from their stock. The Board fills full orders and does not send out individual tags to producers. If a veterinarian or clinic supplies a tag to a producer or client, they must then document when and to whom the tag was distributed.

These situations occur frequently during exhibition season when producers might not notice a missing tag until preparing the animal for the show. All animals require official ID to be exhibited. Remember, silver USDA metal eartags cannot be applied to sheep and goats, so please do not distribute to someone seeking a tag for a sheep or goat. Your help is greatly appreciated!

Seneca Valley Virus (Senecavirus A) appears with very similar clinical signs to several more serious diseases. Because of this, it's important to always report and treat suspected cases with great caution until lab tests can confirm the specific disease. One of the most dangerous diseases Senecavirus A shares similar clinical signs with is foot-and-mouth disease.

The USDA is providing guidance for how to handle any suspected Foreign Animal Diseases. It encourages producers to be informed and cooperative when working with health officials during their investigations. Get an in-depth look at this story from the link below.

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Dr. Greg Suskovic is the new Emergency Planning Program Director at the Board. Many of you may already know Greg as one of the Board's field veterinarians based out of Mankato. He also had a prominent role on the 2015 High Path Avian Influenza outbreak incident command team, which factored into his hiring in this new position.

Emergency planning ensures the Board is prepared to respond to the next animal disease event.  While we might not know which disease will emerge, or where, we do know we'll have a plan in place to respond.

Greg is a longtime resident of the Mankato area and obtained his BA in Biology from Saint Olaf in 1980.  He completed his DVM at the University of Minnesota in 1984 and worked in general practice until 1989, when he joined the Board.  He's been here ever since and aside from his new duties in emergency planning, he has a major interest in pathology, and poultry medicine and production.