The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) recently recognized the West Virginia Department of Agriculture (WVDA) for being one of a handful of states that has crossed the 50 percent threshold in registering agricultural premises, based on figures from USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (USDA-NASS).

NASS’ West Virginia Field Office estimates the number of West Virginia livestock farms at 17,670 out of a total of 21,200, and the WVDA’s Animal Health Division has registered 8,873 of those premises. Nationwide, nearly 450,000 premises have been registered. West Virginia currently ranks 12th overall in the country in the percentage of premises registered.

“I believe this is an important milestone in a critical program for the future well-being of agriculture in West Virginia and the United States,” said West Virginia Commissioner of Agriculture Gus R. Douglass. “The progress we have made registering premises is a credit to the tremendous effort made by the staff of the Animal Health Division. Many of the states ahead of us were able to gather premise information from producer organizations that already had a large amount of data collected. Our program was started basically from scratch.”

Commissioner Douglass noted that the program is voluntary, although he strongly recommends anyone with a premise that might be visited by farm animals to register – including fairgrounds, feed stores, meat-processing facilities and veterinary hospitals and offices.

“The sole purpose of this program is to protect our agricultural industries, communities and food supply,” he said. “It may seem like something small to have such importance, but multiply it by the thousands of premises in West Virginia, and we can have a much better handle on the situation in the event of a disease outbreak.”

Premises are defined as locations where livestock are present, or may be present for a particular time. For example, a premise can be a large farm with hundreds of cattle, a small farm with a few goats and chickens, auction markets or fairgrounds. All create prime opportunities for diseases to circulate among animals.

Premise registration is simple and requires only the most basic information about the premise: Name, address (and/or physical location), phone number, and types of animals, so that operators can be notified of health issues regarding specific types of animals.