HARRISBURG – A bill to help protect domestic animals and the food supply against dangerous transmissible diseases has been signed into law by the governor. Senate Bill 979 is now Act 15 of 2024. The new law gives the PA Department of Agriculture the authority to require retailers to post information about dangerous transmittable diseases at locations where domestic animals and feed are sold to the public. Bill sponsor, Northumberland County Sen. Lynda Schlegel-Culver says biosecurity is important and spreading information is one of the strongest measures we can take to attempt to mitigate the spread of diseases. This law will allow the Department of Agriculture to get important information out to small livestock operations that otherwise may not know of an outbreak near them. The passage of the law is timely as the nation is seeing the spread of avian influenza in cattle. There has been no spread of the disease reported in PA at this time.
SEN. LYNDA SCHLEGEL-CULVER