The National Animal Health Emergency Management System (NAHEMS) is an integrated system for dealing with animal health incidents in the United States, such as the incursion of a foreign animal disease or a natural disaster. It encompasses the four tenets of emergency management: prevention, preparedness, response, and recovery. One cornerstone of the NAHEMS is the response guidelines series. The NAHEMS Guidelines are designed for use by official response personnel in the event of a major animal health emergency. They provide information that may be integrated into the preparedness plans of other Federal, State and local agencies, Tribes, and additional groups involved in animal health emergency management activities. The guidelines are being reviewed and updated on an ongoing basis; comments and suggestions are welcome. Some of the documents posted here are drafts, while others are "final" versions of living documents that will be updated as often as necessary.

The NAHEMS Guidelines are for official use only. Access is restricted to persons involved in the prevention of, preparation for, response to, or recovery from, animal health incidents. If you do not currently have access, but believe you meet the access criteria, please register to obtain a user name and password. When completing the registration form, mark "NAHEMS Guidelines" in the "Access to NAHEMS Guidelines" section. Also indicate in the "Comments" section what your interest or role is relative to animal health emergency management.

If you have access to any instance of EMRS, you have access to the NAHEMS guidelines from the Investigation database main menu

A user ID and password is required to access the NAHEMS data. If you are already a USDA APHIS employee with a Lotus Notes ID, you need to do 2 things:

1. Select an Internet password for yourself from the USDA Address book while in Lotus Notes. For help on how to do this, click here.
2. Contact nahems.reg.approvers@aphis.usda.gov to be added to the NAHEMS access group.

If you are NOT a current USDA APHIS employee and you need to access the NAHEMS click here, then click on new registration, and fill out the information in the form about yourself to request a user ID and password. If you do not receive a user ID and password via EMAIL within a reasonable amount of time, please contact us at nahems.reg.approvers@aphis.usda.gov.