USDA Creating National Livestock ID System

12/10/2003 USDA Creating National Livestock ID System - 12/8 AgOnline

The USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) will publish within the next few months a proposed rule to establish a national livestock ID system, said Dr. John Wiemers, national ID coordinator for USDA-APHIS, at the Iowa Farm Bureau’s annual meeting Dec. 3.

“We’ve been talking about animal ID and tracking animals for 20 years,” Wiemers told Farm Bureau members. “Just recently, in the last two to three years, it (animal ID) has become more of a ‘have-to’ kind of thing as we’re faced with foreign animal diseases, such as foot-and-mouth and mad cow disease, that are knocking at our doorstep.”

The USDA is using the draft U.S. Animal Identification Plan developed by the National Food Animal Identification Task Force as a guide for creating a national livestock ID system.

The task force, formed in April 2002, includes members from more than 30 livestock and meat industry organizations, including the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, National Pork Board, American Farm Bureau Federation, National Milk Producers Federation and the National Institute for Animal Agriculture.

The task force’s primary goal is to establish a national ID system to trace back all farms and livestock in contact with an animal infected with a contagious disease within 48 hours of discovery.

“Right now, we don’t have 48-hour traceback,” Wiemers said. “We can trace an animal from the (packing) plant to the feedlot. But beyond the feedlot, we can’t.”

A national animal ID system will help U.S. animal health officials trace the source of an animal disease outbreak and quarantine herds that were in contact with an infected animal.

Animal ID will not help producers comply with the mandatory country-of-origin meat labeling law, Wiemers said.

The system will only collect information needed to address animal health problems.

“It’s not all encompassing. We’re not talking about country-of-origin labeling. We’re not talking about full food-safety traceability. We’re talking about protecting the national herd,” Wiemers said.

Consumer concerns

Dr. DeeVon Bailey, an agricultural economist from Utah State University, said a national livestock tracking system would also help ease consumer concerns about food safety and food quality.

Bailey said the discovery of mad cow disease, also known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), in Canada this summer changed attitudes in the United States about the need for a national animal ID system.

“I can’t overemphasize how the advent of BSE, or at least the understanding that BSE may be tied to human health, has had a huge impact on how people view traceability,” Bailey said. “More people are viewing traceability as a benefit to both animal health and human health.”

Bailey said the benefits of a national animal ID system would outweigh the costs of implementation. Rapid traceback of an animal disease outbreak would increase the chances that the United States would regain its export markets.

“If we had a significant food safety breakdown in the United States and were not able to give information, it would cause the crisis to snowball,” Bailey said.

Proposed plan

Wiemers said many farms, companies and states are already collecting information on livestock for disease control and marketing efforts.

“The problem is all the information collected is attached to different numbering systems and different databases, and it is not coordinated,” Wiemers said.

The proposed U.S. Animal Identification Plan would provide standardized ID numbers, eartags and data collection.

The National Food Animal Identification Task Force recommends that the USDA implement the plan in three phases:

Phase I – All premises involved in livestock production, including farms, auction barns and processing facilities, will receive an ID number that is unique throughout the United States. The task force proposes that phase I begin in July 2004.

Phase II – All livestock will receive unique individual ID numbers, beginning July 2005. In the case of pork and poultry, groups or lots will receive unique ID numbers. Animals will receive visible eartags featuring the ID numbers. Starting in July 2005, the system will use radio frequency identification devices (RFID) to electronically identify animals.

Phase III – All animal movements will be tracked electronically. The reporting of interstate animal movements will begin in July 2005, while intrastate movement tracing will begin in July 2006.

APHIS will maintain a centralized database to collect all ID information under the proposed system. U.S. animal health officials will use the information only for animal disease control.

“We’re only talking about collecting a few key pieces of information—the date the animal was moved, the ID number of the animal and the location,” Wiemers said.

“All the other information that is being recorded about that animal would be proprietary to the producers.”

The task force is accepting comments on the U.S. Animal Identification Plan until January 2004.

National livestock ID

What is it? U.S. livestock will receive an ID number that is unique throughout the United States. All premises involved in livestock production, including farms and packing plants, will also receive an ID number.

Why needed? An national ID system will allow U.S. animal health officials to trace back the origin of an animal disease outbreak within 48-hours of discovery.

Who has access to info? USDA will maintain the database and will only collect info for animal health purposes. The database is exempt from the Freedom of Information Act.

When will it begin? Premise ID could begin as soon as July 2004. The system will be phased in over two years.

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