Dr. Michael Watson, currently Associate Administrator of the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) since 2018, has been promoted to the position of Administrator responsible for operation of the Agency.

Over his career, Dr. Watson has served as an Associate Deputy Administrator for the Marketing and Regulatory Programs, Business Service and as Director of the Human Resources Division.  He previously worked with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency.  Dr. Watson earned a bachelor’s degree in microbiology from the University of Maryland and a doctorate in plant pathology from the University of California, Davis.

Kevin Shea, previously administrator of APHIS, has been reassigned as Senior Advisor in the Office of the Deputy Secretary.  Shea is a 40-year veteran of APHIS and served as Acting Secretary of Agriculture during the 2021 transition. Shea holds a bachelor's degree from the University of Maryland and a law degree from the University of Baltimore.

It is perhaps an advance to have a scientist as head of APHIS.  Although a plant pathologist by training, Dr. Watson obviously has a knowledge base involving microbiology, epidemiology, and virology that will stand him in good stead in facing challenges represented by diseases of livestock. He is confronted with an ongoing epornitic of avian influenza and the potential introduction of African swine fever and other exotic infections that have the ability to devastate livestock production. 

EGG-NEWS and CHICK-NEWS wish him well in his new position and trust that he will effect changes that will represent a more rational approach to the prevention and control of avian influenza. To this end he will have to reconcile the needs of disparate segments of the poultry industry with respect to vaccination given that eradication is a distant and unobtainable aspiration.