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April 2025

Equine variance program

The Minnesota Board of Animal Health introduced an Equine Exhibition Permit pilot program last year with the intent to address equine industry concerns and adapt to the current veterinary shortage while continuing to uphold the mission to protect the health of the state’s domestic animals through education and cooperation with veterinarians, producers, owners and communities. Equine exhibitions/events lasting longer than one day, or where horses are stabled overnight require a permit from the Board. Some equine event managers report it's hard to find a veterinarian willing to fill the required role of official veterinarian for their event. In response to these concerns the Board introduced a variance program allowing certain exhibitions/events to forgo a veterinarian onsite. The Board worked with the University of Minnesota Equine Extension program to develop an Equine Exhibition Manager Training program available as an online course. The course is composed of three modules and covers the responsibilities of equine exhibition managers, the requirements for horses to be exhibited, and how to apply for exhibition permits, in addition to information on common symptoms of contagious illness that would prompt the manager to call the official veterinarian. The training is self-paced, with each module expected to take approximately 30 minutes to complete. Once a manager successfully completes the exhibition manager training, they can apply for a variance to rule 1721.0100 Subp. 4. A, B, & E. If a variance is granted, a daily visit by the official veterinarian is not required for equine-only exhibitions. The manager performs a daily walk-through of the exhibition and notifies the official veterinarian if they notice any horses exhibiting signs of contagious or communicable illness needing further evaluation. While the exhibition manager still must retain a veterinarian to be available on call for the duration of the event, the time commitment for the official veterinarian is expected to be significantly reduced without the requirement of a daily visit. The goal of the pilot program is to encourage more veterinarians to be willing to fill the role of official veterinarian for exhibitions and to protect the health of the state’s equine population without adding excessive time commitments to their already full workload. The training module and variance application can be found on the Board’s website.

Keep reading...

Update on statewide milk surveillance program

The Minnesota Department of Agriculture started its statewide sampling of raw milk on February 24. Since the rollout of the program more than 1,800 samples have been collected from dairy farms across the state. The program is setup to collect monthly samples from all Minnesota producers sending their milk for processing, regardless of where their milk is shipped, even out of state. Of all those samples collected, to date, only one in Stearns County tested positive for H5N1.

The sampling continues with weekly results reported on the MDA's website. The program is scheduled to continue until there are three consecutive month's of no detections statewide. The Board of Animal Health responds to all confirmed H5N1 cases in livestock and tracks current and past efforts on our website.

Sharing the facts on the NPIP and what it means for poultry and poultry people

We launched a new frequently asked questions flyer on the National Poultry Improvement Plan (NPIP) this week. The NPIP is a testing and monitoring program for certain diseases in poultry and has been around since the 1930's. The recent surge in poultry ownership and interest has led to renewed importance in understanding the NPIP and what benefits it can provide to anyone who owns or sells poultry and those looking to buy new birds for their flock. Specifically, NPIP certification can be an assurance to buyers to prove your birds are tested and free of certain diseases.

There are many more questions and all the answers you need in our new NPIP flyer. Here's a small preview of what you will learn:

• How do poultry owners benefit from the NPIP?
• How do I know I’m buying from a NPIP source?
• What is the NPIP?
• Do birds from NPIP flocks maintain the NPIP certification once sold?
• Where can I find more information on the NPIP?

Update on federally funded disease surveillance

The Board relies on federal funds from the USDA to do a lot of our work. Those federal funds were frozen last month and then reinstated a few weeks later. During the freeze we had to suspend paying for certain producer tests in our poultry and cervid programs. Once the funds were reinstated we quickly got to work to ensure we could cover testing costs.

The testing costs for CWD samples for producers is set to take effect on April 14, 2025. Please note, the $40 fee for whole head submission will continue to be the responsibility of the producer.

The testing costs for routine NPIP samples for poultry producers is also set to take effect April 14, 2025. Please note, the Board will no longer be providing NPIP sample collection testing supplies, apart from pullorum antigen for conducting the Rapid Whole Blood Test and BHI media and swabs for avian influenza testing.

April Board meeting recording

The Minnesota Board of Animal Health held its second quarterly meeting of 2025 on Tuesday, April 1 at the Minnesota Farmers Union in St. Paul. View a recording of the meeting online.

Healthy animals for healthy people and communities.

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