Source: Rita Jane Gabbett, MEATINGPLACE, 10/1/13


The good news:USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service in-plant inspectors are unaffected by the budget-induced government shutdown, as are laboratory personnel who test for microbes and even their equipment maintenance staff.

The bad news: a host of other USDA functions, including the agency’s website and reports that industry players depend on, will not be issued until Congress agrees to a budget and government offices reopen. Also affected are a number of Food and Drug Administration functions, including establishment inspections.

According to documents outlining contingency plans for the shutdown, 8,407 of the 9,633 FSIS employees will stay on the job. That’s 87 percent of the agency’s workforce, which includes all in-plant inspectors.  

When it comes to USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service and the National Agriculture Service, however, those offices are closed and as the analysts in the Daily Livestock Report point out, that means reports like Wednesday’s Broiler Hatchery report and possibly even the October Crop Production and World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates reports scheduled for Oct. 11 could be affected.

It also means regular livestock slaughter and price reporting will be disrupted. “Cattle, hog, beef and pork markets will continue to function and trades will no doubt be made but buyers and sellers will not have the normal publicly-available data from which to gauge offers and bids,” the DLR analysts explained. Steve Meyer and Len Steiner publish the DLR.

All will not return to normal the minute Congress reaches and agreement and government workers return to their desks either. In a message posted briefly this morning before USDA’s website went black the agency warned, “After funding has been restored, please allow some time for this website to become available again.”

FDA is continuing “select vital activities including maintaining critical consumer protection to handle emergencies, high-risk recalls, civil and criminal investigations, import entry review, and other critical public health issues,” according to a Health and Human Services contingency plan published before the shutdown.

However, “FDA will be unable to support the majority of its food safety, nutrition, and cosmetics activities. FDA will also have to cease safety activities such as routine establishment inspections, some compliance and enforcement activities, monitoring of imports, notification programs (e.g., food contact substances, infant formula), and the majority of the laboratory research necessary to inform public health decision-making.”

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will continue minimal support to protect health, through a “significantly reduced capacity to respond to outbreak investigations, processing of laboratory samples, and maintaining the agency’s 24/7 emergency operations center,” according to the HHS document.

CDC will be unable, however, to support outbreak detection and linking across state boundaries using genetic and molecular analysis or technical assistance, analysis, or support to state and local partners for infectious disease surveillance until the shutdown ends.

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