The Pennsylvania Farm Premise Identification Project Web site

What is PAFarms?

PAFarms is fundamentally, a GIS or Geographic Information System that will allow the PA Department of Agriculture to effectively manage all emergency situations, mainly within the Bureau of Animal Health and Diagnostic Systems. It facilitates and greatly enhances the ability to implement emergency response procedures already in place. The system will facilitate disease preparedness by allowing the state to locate any animals exposed to disease and promptly notify and implement intervention measures. This system will provide the foundation for which was once thought to be unobtainable. In the animal industry, time is of the essence upon discovery of a disease. With this system, a 48-hour trace-back on suspect animals can be performed to determine direct exposure to other animals and facilities. Traditionally, creating a list of farmers within five miles of an infected animal could literally take days. Using GIS, this list can be created within seconds. The economic impact of one case of avian influenza or BSE, for example, can have on our economy has proven to be devastating over and over. It is strongly believed that having the technological tools available today can greatly limit the ominous impact a disease outbreak can cause.

What's First?

Before we can benefit from the available technology used to track geographic locations of disease outbreaks, we must first have the information to put into the system. Location is key in providing trace-back capabilities of a diseased animal or group of animals. The premise in which animals commingle most frequently needs to be identified and entered into the system. Premise identification is the first phase in building an effective agriculture emergency response system.