US to dismiss livestock traceability programme
Faced with stiff resistance from ranchers and farmers, the Obama administration has decided to scrap a national programme intended to help authorities quickly identify and track livestock in the event of an animal disease outbreak.
In abandoning the programme, called the National Animal Identification System, officials said they would start over in trying to devise a livestock tracing programme that could win widespread support from the industry.
USDA officials said that it would be left to the states to devise many aspects of a new system, including requirements for identifying livestock.
New federal rules will be developed but the officials said they would apply only to animals being moved in interstate commerce, such as cattle raised in one state being transported to a slaughterhouse in another state.
It could take two years or more to create new federal rules, the officials said, and it was not clear how far the government would go to restrict the movement of livestock between states if the animals did not meet basic traceability standards.
Participation of ranchers and farmers in the identification system was voluntary, but the goal was to give every animal, or in the case of pigs and poultry, groups of animals, a unique identification number that would be entered in a database. The movements of animals would be tracked, and if there was a disease outbreak or a sick animal was found, officials could quickly locate other animals that had been exposed.
However, the system quickly drew the ire of many farmers and ranchers, particularly cattle producers due to high costs and production time.
The old system received US$142 million in federal financing, but gained the participation of only 40% of the nation's livestock producers, according to a report by the Congressional Research Service.
Agriculture officials said that most details of a new system would be worked out in the coming months through consultation with the livestock industry and the states.
