1.10 Animal Identification

The number of animals officially identified in existing animal disease program databases the United States has been decreasing rapidly over the last few years due to the successes of disease eradication programs that have historically provided the foundation for animal identification.  The ability to efficiently track food producing animals from birth to slaughter is vital to safeguarding animal health, protecting the safety of the U.S. food supply and promoting the economic vitality of animal agriculture. More than ever, States need modern tools for capturing animal health data in an integrated and automated fashion to track the health of livestock populations. USDA's National Animal Identification System (NAIS) is a voluntary partnership among producers and government that seeks to ensure a 48-hour traceback of livestock in the United States. NAIS utilizes three components - premise registration, animal identification, and animal tracing - to locate and eliminate potentially diseased animals. The system and all 3 components are based on voluntary enrollment by livestock producers.

NASDA supports and encourages the U.S. Congress to legislatively remove livestock from the J-List, an amendment to the Tariff Act of 1930 (19 U.S.C. § 1304(a)(3)(J); 19 C.F.R. § 134.33) This would allow animal health authorities to identify imported livestock, in concert with the recently enacted Country of Origin Labeling provisions in the 2008 Farm Bill (Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008, Section 11002.). Moreover, identification of imported livestock is necessary to facilitate quick traceback of livestock that were previously and unknowingly exposed to potential new and emerging diseases, or diseases with long incubation periods, such as BSE and tuberculosis. The need to locate these animals may not be realized until many years after the date of importation.

The USDA released a draft Business Plan for implementing NAIS in December 2007. The primary focus of the business plan is streamlining current animal health programs to increase NAIS participants through these systems. The basic strategies outlined in the business plan include; focusing on cattle breeding herds as first priority, harmonizing and standardizing data collection methods using NAIS standards across existing government programs; integrating automated data capture technologies within existing disease programs; expanding partnerships with state and tribal governments; collaboration with industry; and continued exploration of new technologies and their applications.

NASDA supports USDA's efforts within the NAIS draft Business Plan to form a more workable, common sense approach to enhance animal ID for animal health and disease surveillance purpose. NASDA further supports the recent producer confidentiality provision within the 2008 Farm Bill (Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008, Section 1619.) Section 1619 prohibits disclosure of information that agricultural producers or owners of land have provided to USDA concerning agricultural operations, farming or conservation practices, or the land itself, in order to participate in USDA programs such as NAIS.

NASDA also supports and encourages the use of state-held animal ID program databases that are fully equipped to communicate with the other state-held animal ID program databases to trace animal movement in the event of a disease outbreak. NASDA further supports the use of a standardized animal identification numbering system for livestock that is technology-neutral, enabling producers to choose the identification tag that best fits their operations and management practices allowing producers to manage costs.