Panel addresses proposal for animal ID, disease traceability
By Heather Thorstensen
hthorstensen@agrinews.com
Date Modified: 12/21/2011 4:09 PM
E-mail article | Print version
MORTON, Minn. — A panel at the Minnesota State Cattlemen's Association annual convention addressed the U.S. Department of Agriculture's proposed rule for new requirements of animal identification during interstate travel.
The proposed rule would require livestock, unless specifically exempted, to be officially identified and have an interstate certificate of veterinary inspection or other documentation. The purpose is to improve disease traceability for when a disease event occurs.
At first, it applies to beef cattle that are sexually intact and 18 months old and older, or those used for exhibition or rodeo. Beef cattle younger than 18 months would eventually be phased in.
Knowing where diseased and at-risk animals are, where they have been and when is critical to preventing a disease from spreading and it reduces the time and cost involved in the response effort, says USDA.
It can currently take six months to trace back a case of bovine TB to the original farm, but it could take just hours if cattle start with an ID, said Neil Hammerschmidt, the Animal Disease Traceability project manager for USDA-Animal Plant Health Inspection Service.
The country's infrastructure for livestock disease traceability is weaker today than it was 10 years ago, he said during the Dec. 2 panel. The country has stopped vaccinating most breeding heifers for brucellosis, but these vaccinations came with official ID. Now, instead of a majority of breeding heifers being identified, a much smaller percentage have ID.
"The infrastructure will continue to deteriorate if we don't do anything," he said.
USDA's proposed rule is designed to be flexible to account for diversity across the industry, said Hammerschmidt. States will have authority over deciding how to implement the program within their borders.
The underlining message from the National Cattlemen's Beef Association is that producers need and want to have a healthy herd, said J.D. Alexander, NCBA's president-elect. They want to work with USDA-APHIS and other organizations to maintain that goal.
NCBA's position is cattle should be handled differently based on if they are younger or older than 18 months to handle differences in the breeding and feeder cattle segments of the industry.
The comment period on the proposed rule closed Dec. 9. MSCA's comments supported the new state-run approach and asked, among other things, for federal cost-share assistance to help state authorities. The rule is expected to take effect sometime in 2012, most likely in the middle or end of the year.
What exactly would be approved as official ID for Minnesota cattle is still being determined, said Bill Hartmann, executive director of the Minnesota Board of Animal Health. USDA is proposing RFID tags or USDA metal eartags.
The animal health board has funds from the state's bovine TB program that could help pay for the tags or USDA could provide the metal tags for free. The ID could be put in by producers, their veterinarians or by the board's veterinarians, Hartmann said.
Billy Bushelle, Bagley Livestock Exchange's market manager, spoke against increased animal identification, saying that current rules are sufficient for Minnesota's breeding herd.
Instead of having the ability to immediately link an infected animal directly to its original farm through ID, Bushelle said current records could lead investigators back to perhaps four possible farms so they could discover the original farm from there.
The market should be driving this issue, Bushelle said, so that producers who go the extra mile to ID their cattle earn premium prices.
The U.S. is the world's largest exporter of beef, said Alexander, but it's the only beef-exporting country that does not have an animal ID system. Asia is a growing export area and Asian consumers like to know where their food comes from.
"We're lagging behind some other countries," he said.
Bushelle countered that he isn't ashamed that the United States can hold global market share without extensive identification.
"It seems like other places have a lot more trouble than we do," Bushelle said.