March 1, 2006

 

Industry group proposes new way of cattle identification
 

 

US livestock may now get individual identification numbers in a new twist to cattle branding.

 

Today in Washington, a nonprofit industry group plans to launch a programme that aims to assign each cow, bison and other livestock its own 15-digit number and track their movements in a national database. Animals would be tagged, perhaps in the ear with a bar code or a radio-frequency chip.

 

The goal is to make it easier for animal health officials to track the source of any outbreak of mad-cow or other animal disease -- and limit its scope.

 

Under the voluntary plan, every time an animal is sold, its number and buyer is registered in the database to help pinpoint its movements. In the event of a disease outbreak, this information could help locate previous owners of the infected animal and other animals it had contact with. Officials could then impose quarantines or other restrictions.

 

Lack of such a system hampered US investigators following the first US case of mad-cow disease in 2003.

 

US ranchers have long resisted an ID tracking programme partly because they fear liability for food safety problems. But McDonald's Corp and other large beef customers, along with federal regulators have been pushing for it. The lack of one has made foreign trading partners nervous. Japan, once the country's largest export beef market, has a ban on US beef imports due to mad cow related concerns.

 

The new system, with a start-up cost of US$2.5 million to US$3 million, is part of a pilot effort to track about 300,000 animals in the south-east and north-west.

 

Pigs, chickens and other poultry could be part of the programme, and are likely to be identified by group lot or coop.

 

So far, industry response to an ID system has been tepid. In 2004, the USDA started a programme for livestock producers and suppliers to register the location of their animals. Of the roughly two million producers in the country only about 200,000 have registered, the USDA says.

 

"Producers are recognizing that it's to their benefit in the long run to help protect the health of the national herd," says Rick Stott, chairman of the Northwest Pilot Project, which is part of the pilot programme.