June 12, 2007

US livestock farmers embracing national animal ID

Livestock producers in the US are voluntarily signing their operations with the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) for the National Identification System, said Bruce Knight, undersecretary for the USDA's marketing and regulatory programs, during the World Pork Expo in Iowa.

Knight said that about 400,000 US farms or a more than one in four farms have already registered to the national animal ID with the help by the National Pork Board.

He said that registering livestock operations with the USDA's ID programme will help producers and animal health officials create an information system to immediately respond to a disease outbreak or to agri-terrorism.

Knight added said the programme, aside from being the right thing to do, also ensure confidentiality, is simple and doesn't cost anything.

The USDA also signed an agreement with the National FFA Organization, formerly known as Future Farmers of America, to encourage registration.

The ID programme was previously obstructed due to protests of some livestock producers registering with the government.

Because of the deadlock, Knight said US Secretary of Agriculture Mike Johanns decided to institute a voluntary registration to get the programme to take off.

The goal of the programme is to get enough livestock operations registered so that an animal disease outbreak or another "animal health emergency" can be traced to the farm of origin in 48 hours, Knight said.