Chapter 7 Recommendations for Executive Action

United States Government Accountability Office

We are making nine recommendations to improve the ability of the federal veterinarian workforce to carry out routine activities, prepare for a catastrophic event, and respond to zoonotic disease outbreaks.

To help ensure the federal veterinarian workforce is sufficient to meet the critical responsibilities it carries out on a routine basis, we recommend that

1. the Secretary of Agriculture direct FSIS to periodically assess whether its level of inspection resources dedicated to food safety and humane slaughter activities is sufficient, and

2. the Secretary of Agriculture conduct a departmentwide assessment of USDA's veterinarian workforce—based, for example, on workforce assessments by its component agencies—to identify current and future workforce needs (including training and employee development) and departmentwide solutions to problems shared by its agencies. When the Secretary completes the assessment, the results should be forwarded to the Director of the Office of Personnel Management.

3. We also recommend that the Secretary of Health and Human Services direct the department’s component agencies that employ veterinarians to conduct regular workforce assessments and that the Secretary then conduct a departmentwide assessment of HHS’s veterinarian workforce to identify current and future workforce needs (including training and employee development) and solutions to problems shared by its agencies. When the Secretary completes the assessment, the results should be forwarded to the Director of the Office of Personnel Management.

4. Finally, we recommend that the Director of the Office of Personnel

Management determine, based on USDA’s and HHS’s

departmentwide veterinarian workforce evaluations, whether a governmentwide effort is needed to address shortcomings in the sufficiency of the current and future veterinarian workforce.

To help the veterinarian workforce continue essential functions during a pandemic, we recommend that

5.

To improve estimates of the veterinarian workforce needed to respond to a large-scale foot-and-mouth disease outbreak, we recommend that

6. the Secretary of Agriculture detail in a contingency response plan how a response using vaccines would be implemented, and

7. the Secretary of Homeland Security coordinate an interagency effort to identify the data necessary to model the spread of disease in wildlife and how best to gather these data.

To improve the ability of the federal veterinarian workforce to respond to zoonotic outbreaks in the future while also effectively carrying out routine activities, we recommend that the Secretaries of those departments most likely

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to be involved in response efforts—such as USDA, HHS, and Interior—ensure that their agencies:

8. conduct postoutbreak assessments of workforce management; and

9. in coordination with relevant federal, state, and local agencies, periodically review the postoutbreak assessments to identify common workforce challenges and strategies for addressing them.