Agricultural News
USDA Dumping NAIS for Decentralized Animal Disease Traceback Plan
Mon, 08 Feb 2010 6:25:38 CST
After spending millions of dollars trying to assemble a National Animal ID system, the US Department of Agriculture has tossed in the towel on that effort and announced plans on Friday to go what they are calling a "bottom up" system that will be run by the states and federally supported but not federally led.
This system needs to be in place to make sure if we have a disease outbreak in our livestock herd- we can traceback to find where the disease originated in less than 48 hours. After the initial case of Mad Cow disease in the US back in 2003- a national animal ID program has been contemplated and proposed- but small livestock operations called it Big Brother overkill and have fought a mandated program. This new "direction" is decentralized and will only be required of animals going across state lines in interstate commerce.
Lots of details to come- but USDA says it will look a lot like previous ID programs for some previous animal diseases that have been mostly eliminated from the cattle and hog herds in the US- and it will apparently use low cost simple ear tags that will cost pennies per animal instead of the high tech options of electronic ear tags and readers that could cost several dollars per animal. Click here for a Q&A Factsheet that USDA has prepared to explain their decentralized plan.
The National Cattlemen's Beef Association responded to the announcement from Friday- new President of the group, Steve Foglesong of Illinois, says "The plan appears to lay the foundation for a flexible approach to animal disease traceability, including greater state-involvement and choices in the use of technology.
"We encourage USDA to work closely with producers in the development of the framework moving forward. It's important that the system is workable for producers, and accomplishes the goal of increased animal surveillance by enabling state and federal animal health officials to respond rapidly and effectively to animal health emergencies."
We talk about this changing direction by USDA on today's Beef Buzz- and hear from several folks about some concerns being raised about the demise of NAIS for what could be a problematic program to coordinate and make work to help quickly trace back a disease outbreak. We have comments from CEO Ron DeHaven says the American Veterinary Medical Association, Jay Truitt of Policy Solutions, a Washington-based lobbying firm and Bruce Knight, USDA's Marketing and Regulatory Under Secretary in the final years of the Bush Administration.
The Beef Buzz is a regular feature heard on radio stations around the state on the Radio Oklahoma Network- but is also a regular audio feature found on this website as well. Click on the listen bar below for today's show- and check out our archives for older Beef Buzz shows covering the gamut of the beef cattle industry today.
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