Business-centric data solutions for safeguarding American animal agriculture

Business-centric solutions to data-related problems often yield the greatest positive impacts and improvements to enterprise operations but are challenging to design and implement at scale within government agencies. The core mission of the United States Department of Agriculture – Animal Plant Health Inspection Service – Veterinary Services (USDA APHIS VS) is to safeguard American animal agriculture, and effective data management underpins these efforts. As our agency works to facilitate data-driven decision making in animal health management, we continue to leverage a blend of best practices from Federal Data Strategy initiatives and the International Data Management Association (DAMA) framework to support operational excellence in data management. This paper describes three case studies focused on strategies to improve animal health data collection, integration, reporting, and governance for an animal health authority. These strategies have enhanced the way USDA’s Veterinary Services executes its mission and core operational activities for disease prevention, detection, and early response to support containment and control.