GAO Recommends Improved Agency Collaboration on Animal Imports
The Government Accountability Office has issued a report entitled “Live Animal Imports: Agencies Need Better Collaboration to Reduce the Risk of Animal-Related Diseases” in which it found that statutory and regulatory framework for live animal imports has gaps that could allow the introduction of diseases into the U.S.
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APHIS, CBP, CDC, FWS Collaborate in Some Areas, Barriers Remain
According to GAO, the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Centers for Disease Control, and Fish and Wildlife Service have collaborated to meet their responsibilities related to live animal imports by taking actions in five areas—strategic planning, joint strategies, written procedures, leveraging resources, and sharing data.
However, GAO identified barriers to further collaboration on live animal imports, such as different program priorities and unclear roles and responsibilities, which are inherent when multiple agencies have related responsibilities.
Barriers to Collaboration Include Incompatible Data Systems, Multiple Entities
GAO notes that examples of barriers to further collaboration include:
Agencies have incompatible data systems, ITDS not completed. The agencies have largely incompatible data systems, and a completion date for CBP’s planned data system (the International Trade Data System), which would provide the agencies with full operational access to information on incoming shipments of live animals, has not been established.
ITDS data elements not defined. APHIS, CBP, CDC, and FWS have yet to jointly determine which data elements on live animal imports are needed in ITDS for them to effectively oversee these imports, according to CBP officials. As a result, it is unclear whether the data elements in ITDS will meet interagency needs.
No single entity is comprehensively responsible. Because each of the agencies is focused on a different aspect of live animal imports, no single entity has comprehensive responsibility for the zoonotic and animal disease risks posed by live animal imports. According to GAO, there is a need for an entity to help the agencies overcome these barriers to collaboration.
GAO Recommends Development of Strategy to Address Barriers to Collaboration
GAO recommends that the Secretaries of Agriculture, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, and the Interior develop a strategy to address barriers to agency collaboration that may allow potentially risky imported animals into the U.S. and jointly determine data needs to effectively oversee imported animals.
(GAO report, GAO-11-9, dated November 2010)