July 12, 2007

Australia to strengthen livestock identification programme

Australia's programme in tracing cattle has improved significantly over the past three years, according to an agriculture official.

The National Livestock Identification System (NLIS) is hailed by Peter McGauran, minister for agriculture, fisheries and forestry, adding the system highlights the key performance indicators critical to Australia's livestock producers.

McGauran said three hundred tags were randomly selected from all parts of the production chain and audited against the performance standards. Ninety-nine percent of cattle involved in the exercise were traced back to their origin--significantly up 75 percent that could be traced when a similar exercise held in 2004, he said.

McGauran said the skills tested in the exercise would be essential to limit the impact of a major disease outbreak and minimise any long-term trade restrictions that would flow from such an outbreak.

Data from participants was collated centrally, including cattle-tracing results, information about how the tracing was conducted, any impediments encountered, and ways the system could be improved. The Animal Health Committee and Meat and Livestock Australia were also consulted for their feedback.

McGauran said the exercise has generated 21 recommendations had been agreed to by a joint government-industry committee to further strengthen the NLIS, including standardising tracing procedures and reporting formats across the country, prioritising traces based on risk. It will also clarify the responsibilities of the NLIS database administrators in the event of a disease outbreak.

However, Linda Hewitt from the Australian Beef Association said that the audit was only done on a very small proportion of cattle moved every day in Australia so it was an unrealistic test to claim that everything is working well with NLIS.