Last month, the USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) published the final rule for the New Swine Slaughter Inspection System (NSIS), a rule that requires additional pathogen sampling for swine slaughter establishments and eliminates the numbers of FSIS inspectors, with a goal toward modernizing swine slaughter safety and more efficiently utilizing agency resources.

FSIS officials discuss the proposal to modernize swine inspection and the work the agency does with small establishments.

A report from the New York Times states that the computer system used by the country’s 3,000 federal meat inspectors was shut down for two days this month, leading to shipments of meat being shipped out of plants before workers could collect samples to check for pathogens.

U.S. Senators agreed to shift $55 million in funds within the Department of Agriculture on Wednesday to avoid temporary layoffs of all U.S. meat inspectors due to federal budget cuts.

The timing and assignment of furloughs would be spread across the country to minimize the impact on processors.

The USDA has said that U.S. meat processors, who would have to essentially shut down while inspectors were laid off, would lose about $10 billion in production.