Indemnity Program

Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service administers regulations at 9 CFR parts 50 to 56 that authorizes payment for indemnities. This authority covers a wide variety of indemnity situations ranging from large livestock depopulations to small fowl depopulations, and there are various indemnity calculations and processes for determining the indemnity value for each specific species. The Secretary of Agriculture offers an opinion that constitutes an emergency and threatens the U.S. animal population. Payment for the destroyed animals is based on fair market value. Also, under Section 415 (e) of the Plant Protection Act (Title IV of Public Law 106-224), under a declaration of extraordinary emergency because of the presence of a plant pest or noxious weed that is new to or not known to be widely prevalent in the United States, the Secretary may pay compensation for economic losses incurred by as a result of actions taken under the authorities in this section (415).