To Keep America’s Food Supply Safe, We Must Seize the Opportunity to Modernize the USDA
Veterinarians and doctors alike focus on disease prevention as a first line of defense. Prevention of animal disease is particularly important with U.S. livestock producers facing numerous foreign animal disease threats.
A key tool in the prevention toolbox is vaccination. That’s why a little-known agency at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the Center for Veterinary Biologics (CVB), is so critical. CVB is the regulatory agency that reviews animal vaccines, biologics and diagnostics. It is important that the review process is as efficient as possible to provide farmers, ranchers, and veterinarians with important tools to prevent animal disease.
Food production helps keep America competitive. According to the USDA’s Economic Research Service, farmers and ranchers produced nearly $300 billion in agricultural output in 2025 by raising cattle, pigs, chickens and other animals. The U.S. food supply is currently among the safest in the world because American farmers, ranchers, and veterinarians rely on timely access to safe, effective animal health products developed by one of the most innovative sectors in the U.S.
It is critical that CVB is modernized and properly resourced to ensure the product review process enables innovative cures to reach veterinarians, food producers and pet owners.
AHI is working with USDA to modernize this process, and we appreciate the attention Deputy Secretary Stephen Vaden and his team have given it. Deputy Secretary Vaden has committed to working with AHI and other stakeholders on a third-party audit that will conduct a comprehensive review of CVB regulations, processes, and policies and recommend improvements. Potential improvements include:
- Ensuring expertise matches evolving technology. Today’s animal health products use technology to be more targeted, easier to administer, and prevent disease in novel ways. The time is now to bring scientific expertise to CVB that can work with new technologies.
- Standardizing sourcing ingredients to avoid supply chain jeopardy. USDA-CVB develop a list of practical standards for U.S. animal health companies sourcing materials for vaccines. The inability to source important ingredients threatens to reduce the availability of needed vaccines, biologics and diagnostics.
- Reducing animal testing through modern techniques. We urge USDA-CVB to replace outdated animal-based testing with precision-focused, globally harmonized standards that protect animal welfare and American industry. Embracing modern, repeatable, and humane scientific methods that use real-world safety and efficacy data from other countries with comparable and reliable regulatory standards will improve and speed up the review process.
- Harmonizing with international standards. CVB should update guidance, regulations, and notices to guide companies, clearly indicating alignment with international standards.
Modernization of the process to review animal vaccines is critical to the future profitability of American farmers and ranchers. The ability to keep animals healthy is not only a bottom-line issue for farmers and ranchers, but a food safety issue for all Americans. And pet owners who want their pet companions to be healthy also appreciate that healthy pets strengthen their human-animal bond, which in turn leads to happier, healthier people.
We look forward to working with Deputy Secretary Vaden and the CVB team to ensure the United States is the best place in the world to develop and market cutting edge vaccines to keep US producers competitive.
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