Revisions to animal disease law proposed

AUGUSTA – In the wake of the international foot-and-mouth disease scare, revisions have been proposed for the state’s animal disease control laws.

Shelly Doak, director of the Animal Welfare Division of the Maine Department of Agriculture, said that regulations had not been reviewed in more than 35 years.

The changes were proposed for this legislative session to cover some key areas, she said Monday.

A more comprehensive and detailed review of the laws will be conducted over the next several years. The revisions, written into LD 1965, will be reviewed next week by the Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry Committee of the Legislature.

Lobbyists for Maine newspapers, television and radio stations earlier had sought a change in the revisions because they would have required all animal disease investigations to be confidential.

But Doak said that last week the confidentiality section was removed.

“That section was so restrictive that we wouldn’t have been able to tell farmer A that farmer B had foot-and-mouth disease,” said Doak.

“We are asking that the confidentiality section be stricken from the bill.”

Maine Department of Agriculture officials routinely have been frank and forthcoming about disease issue. They freely share investigation information with reporters, farmers and others so the public can remain alerted to disease outbreaks that possibly could result in epidemics.

The revised law, however, would have required that all “department records relating to open, ongoing animal health investigation, animal health research and animal health surveillance are confidential and may not be disclosed to any person, even upon written authorization by the subject of the record.”

Presented by the Maine Department of Agriculture, the bill also revises and updates the provisions for controlling and monitoring diseases affecting livestock and poultry.

It also updates provisions governing livestock and poultry dealers, domesticated deer and animal auctions.

Many of the changes in the law are proposed to deal with diseases and illnesses that have become epidemic in other countries or states since Maine’s laws were created more than three decades ago.

One prominent change in the laws is the placement of all responsibility for enforcing the laws on the shoulders of the state’s agriculture commissioner.

The law previously was worded to allow “his duly authorized representative.”

Doak explained that under the definitions section of the bill, the definition of commissioner already allows for “his duly authorized representative.”

“We would much prefer to take a careful, comprehensive look at these regulations,” said Doak, but admitted that because this session of the Legislature is an emergency session, only a few key changes could be proposed.

She said a more precise review of the rules is already under way.