OPIS Brochure

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USDA Offshore Pest Information System
The Offshore Pest Information System is a
structured, risk-focused application designed to
collect, synthesize/analyze, communicate and
utilize relevant offshore pest information.
Homeland Security inspectors at ports of entry
need to be aware of such pest situations abroad
on a daily basis in order to focus their
inspection activities OPIS allows secure
and easy reporting of any of these issues, with
on-going analysis of developing situations in
trading partner countries, together with
potential information exchange among our
partners. APHIS information needs have
historically driven diverse information
management strategies, but lacked
technologically-driven intelligence from foreign
countries. Recent expanses in global trading
patterns and international travel have
particularly increased the risk of exotic pest
and disease introductions. Non-indigenous plant
pests alone are estimated to cause annual losses
of over 140 billion in the U.S. There is a clear
need for ready access to information on exotic
pests not known to occur in the United States
focusing on off-shore intelligence gathering, for
a multitude of purposes including risk and
pathway analyses. In addition, there had
been no established mechanism for archiving of
exotic pest population information overseas for
use in risk analyses and pest prioritizations.
The added threat of bioterrorism now mandates
cooperative actions by all agencies, federal and
state. Technological solutions lead with answers
for both intelligence gathering and information
use.
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