INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. — The Indiana State Board of Animal Health (BOAH) is hopeful ongoing budget negotiations in the state legislature will allow the board to be fully funded for the next two years.
In keeping with belt-tightening across state agencies, there had been a proposed 3 percent cut in funding for the board’s activities, which include farm and food-processing facility inspections, as well as tracking animal-borne diseases in wild and domestic species and preventing bioterrorism.
BOAH, however, is seeing an increase in demand for those services. Dr. Bret D. Marsh, state veterinarian, spoke to state officials to enlighten them of the board’s needs.
"We had an opportunity at the end of January to make a presentation to the (state) House Ways and Means Committee, just to talk about what the Board of Animal Health does, and our activities," Marsh said after the BOAH quarterly meeting last week. "Even before then, we were working with the (state) Office of Management and Budget to make sure we were right-resourced in order to carry out this mission.
"We’re getting feedback from them now that we will be able to get resources in order to make sure we’re matched to carry out our mission over the next two years. The budget process is not yet complete, but were getting feedback that is encouraging."
It is hoped when the budget is done at the end of this month, rather than fewer dollars there will be more. "There’s a small increase in (BOAH’s request) in order to make sure that we have the positions funded that we need, particularly to carry out meat inspections and dairy inspections," Marsh said.
Reductions in funds, leading to possible reductions in services, could impact the state’s economy. "One of the things that’s unique (about agriculture) is that in some sectors of the economy, fewer inspections and less regulation grows that sector," he explained. "In (agriculture sectors), without the inspection, the product doesn’t move.
"We have to have the inspections in place, so when I get short on staff I start getting calls from meat plant owners, dairy processors, dairy farmers, saying ‘Who’s coming out?’ because they know that without that, they don’t have a product to sell."
This issue arises just as the Indiana State Department of Agriculture (ISDA) announced its Dairy Strategy in March. Shortly after the announcement, ISDA Director Ted McKinney said, "You need a certain number of inspectors to facilitate current and future dairy production. The Board of Animal Health and its team are very much needed. It is a critical component to current operations and future strategy development."
Marsh agrees. "That’s one of the important parts of the dairy strategy," he said. "It says that we’re exporting 4 million pounds of milk each day that could be value-added here in Indiana, so they are looking for processing opportunities. But we need that inspection team to make sure that product moves."
Maintaining funding is also important to keep trained inspectors, he said.
"We’ve had them leave to the private sector, and actually leaving to another state to work similar jobs in those states for more money," Marsh said, adding he is not asking for large amounts, "but on the other hand, we want to be competitive to keep people on board.
"The technical skills for dairy inspection, for example, in a plant are very sophisticated, so it takes a while to get people trained to a level to where they’re ready to go. Then if we lose them, we have to start over each time."
Marsh said support for maintaining the BOAH budget has been expressed across all agriculture stakeholders.
"We’ve had great support, whether it’s the dairy strategy for the State Department of Agriculture, the commodity organizations, legislators, et cetera, they understand the role that the agency has in regards to Indiana food safety and animal health, so we’ll see how these final weeks shape up with the budget – but we’re encouraged."
