Diseased Livestock Indemnity Fund

Plain English Breakdown

The official source does not provide details on the exact amount of money in the fund or specific actions that can be taken with the expanded use of funds for emerging threats.

Livestock Health Fund Changes

This law changes how money in a fund for livestock health can be used, allowing it to help prepare for and respond to new threats as well as pay owners when their animals are sick or need to be destroyed.

What This Bill Does

• Expands the use of money in the diseased livestock indemnity fund to include preparing for and responding to emerging threats to livestock health.
• Changes the name of the fund to 'Livestock Health Preparedness, Response, and Diseased Livestock Indemnity Fund'.
• Keeps existing funding sources for the fund.

Who It Names or Affects

• Livestock owners who need help with diseased animals or emerging threats to their herds.
• The Colorado Department of Agriculture and its Animal Health Division, which manages the fund.

Terms To Know

Indemnity

Money paid to someone as compensation for a loss or damage.

Emerging Threats

New risks that could harm livestock health, such as new diseases.

Limits and Unknowns

• The bill does not specify how much money will be in the fund.
• It is unclear what specific actions can be taken with the expanded use of funds for emerging threats.

Official Summary Text

Currently, money in the diseased livestock indemnity fund may be used only to pay indemnity to a livestock owner whose herd has been sold for slaughter or destroyed because the herd was exposed to or diagnosed with an infectious or contagious disease. The bill expands the permissible uses of the money in the diseased livestock indemnity fund by allowing the commissioner of agriculture to authorize using the money to prepare for and respond to certain emerging threats to livestock health.
The bill renames the fund the "livestock health preparedness, response, and diseased livestock indemnity fund" (fund).
Money in the fund consists of the unexpended and unencumbered balance appropriated by the general assembly for the services of commissioned or appointed personnel in the animal health division of the Colorado department of agriculture. Civil penalties collected for violations of the "Livestock Health Act" are also credited to the fund. The bill preserves these statutory funding streams and does not alter the amount of money in the fund.
(Note: This summary applies to the reengrossed version of this bill as introduced in the second house.)