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Maine Cattle Health Assurance Program
(MeCHAP)

BACKGROUND

MeCHAP is a cooperative effort of the Maine Department of Agriculture, the University of Maine Cooperative Extension, dairy processors and handlers, practicing veterinarians and dairy producers.

Today’s food animal producer must thrive in a challenging, rapidly changing environment. This environment is continuously being shaped by consumer demands, animal herd health status and environmental protection issues.

The major challenges facing the food animal production industry today fall into one of three major categories:

1. Animal Health

Animal diseases that impact production
Animal welfare and cow comfort
Production efficiency

2. Public Health

Zoonotic disease control
Food safety
Chemical residue

3. Environmental Stewardship

Nutrient management

The MeCHAP program was designed to address the challenges outlined above. It provides the producer with a mechanism for addressing the key animal health risk areas important to their particular farm and gives the producer credit for employing practices that foster healthy animals and safe food. It involves an objective assessment of farm practices and gives the producer credit and recognition for his efforts. The program consists of two basic components:

The Core: This component consists of those health management practices de­signed to prevent the introduction of a disease agent and reduce the transmission of the disease within the farm animal population. Additional core practices are designed to prevent the escape of the agent into the environment and reduce the chance that an infected animal will be moved to a new, naïve animal population.

The core program can best be described as those general health and biosecurity practices, often preventative in nature, implemented on the farm to improve the general health and well being of the animals.

Targeted Modules: The targeted mod­ule is designed to address specific health issues or diseases on the farm and are incorporated into the herd plan that is tailored to the term situation. The decision to implement a particular module depends on the nature of the problem, the resources available and producer goals and intentions.

Modules are designed to supplement the core biosecurity measures described pre­viously. Food safety based modules in­clude residue avoidance, mastitis control, Salmonella outbreak control. paratuberculosis management and environmental pathogen control.

PROGRAM NUTS AND BOLTS

Risk Assessment: The risk assessment is a key component of all modules asso­ciated with the MeCHAP program. The risk assessment involves an actual on-farm walk through for the purpose of identifying risk factors for disease trans­mission. These risk factors are then matched to intervention strategies de­signed to mitigate the identified risk.

Herd Plan: The final component of the MeCHAP module materials consists of the herd plan. The herd plan results from the assignment of a priority to the intervention strategies that were identi­fied during the risk assessment process. Consideration of which factors to include in the herd plan include the estimate of the magnitude of effect, the resources available for implementation, the produc­ers desired rate of progress and the farm goals.

The herd plan also includes a designation of the individual responsible for the implementation of the management strat­egy and the frequency (usually monthly) that an assessment of this factor is made.

COOPERATIVE PROGRAMS  

MeCHAP is a member of a Regional Dairy Quality Management  Alliance. The alliance is made up of thirteen states in the Northeast which are all developing a similar program based on the NYSCHAP program developed in New York State.  The National Milk Producers Federation supports the establishment of state plans to support this initiative.

SUMMARY

The MeCHAP offers producers the opportunity to incrementally progress towards the elimination of diseases and other fac­tors that affect profitability and the ability to participate in the rapidly evolving marketplace. As more producers participate, informed purchase decisions can be made and the program will also provide a means to ascertain the disease status of replace­ment animals.

If you would like more information about the Maine Cattle Health Assurance Program, please contact the: 

The Maine Department of Agriculture, Food and Rural Resources (207-287-3701) or the University of Maine Cooperative Extension Livestock Office (1-800-287-7170) or (207) 581-2788).