April 13, 2009

The tracking system for US livestock may soon be implemented but the proposal is already being opposed by beef producers.

The system known as traceback, has been in place shortly after the country's first case of mad cow disease in December 2003, but some members of Congress say the US$130 million programme is not working.

Several key lawmakers are threatening to withhold any more money for a voluntary system, insisting the livestock industry is no safer now from the spread of mad cow and other diseases.

Representative Rosa DeLauro, who chairs a House Appropriations subcommittee that oversees agriculture, said the system which has been a failure for five years, have already wasted tens of millions of dollars.

While dairy and pork groups support a mandatory programme as the best way to contain disease outbreaks that can devastate an industry, beef producers oppose the idea.

Colin Woodall, executive director of legislative affairs for the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, said the trade group would fight any mandatory animal identification system.

He said cattle groups fear it will be expensive to purchase ID tags and to track the animals. One estimate said full participation in a national animal identification system could cost more than US$200 million a year to government, businesses and producers.

They also worry that sensitive information on their operations, such as the location and number of cattle, could be accidentally released, or obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request.

R-Calf USA, a rancher group, called on Congress and the US Agriculture Department to completely abandon the tracking programme "because of its many flaws."

They say the best approach to food animal safety is preventing diseases from entering the United States and boosting eradication of diseases in wildlife.

USDA's chief veterinarian, John Clifford, told Congress he supported compiling data on where and when a food animal was born and its location when it died. It would be less cumbersome than the current proposal, he said.

The current national animal identification programme is intended to track farm and herdmates of sick animals within 48 hours of an animal disease outbreak.

The plan was embraced by USDA after the discovery of the first US case of mad cow disease in 2003, which slammed the door on US beef exports around the world and leading purchasers, such as Japan and South Korea, are still edgy about importing US beef.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack in March said he was aware of the "serious dissatisfaction" among lawmakers and didn't rule out a new system.

The National Milk Producers Federation has estimated that 75 percent of dairy producers have registered for the voluntary system, but believes that, without a mandatory programme, it will be hard to get participation from the remaining 25 percent.

The chicken industry on the other hand is encouraging its farmers to register their premises for the traceback programme while pork producers stand behind a mandatory measure.

So far, 510,000 feedlots and sales barns have been registered out of the 1.4 million premises the USDA wants to sign up.

Dave Warner, a spokesman with the National Pork Producers Council said opposing livestock groups will not be compelled to adopt the ID system.

But he warns that "it only takes one infected pig or cow to shut our export markets."

The pork industry has its own ID system, mirroring USDA's that has registered 80 percent of hog farms.

While four states have participation rates in the USDA programme higher than 98 percent, cooperation in major cattle states has been low -- with an 18 percent rate in Texas, 21 percent in Kansas and 56 percent in Nebraska.

During a hearing last month, Rep. Collin Peterson, who chairs the House Agriculture Committee, warned opponents that he would make sure they were not bailed out by the government if there was an epidemic and no mandatory traceback system was in place.