July 26, 2007

USDA intensifies animal identification system

The National Animal Identification System (NAIS) gets further boost as the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) partners with the US Animal Identification Organization (USAIO) to register more than 100,000 new premises in its bid to ensure health of US livestock.

Bruce Knight, undersecretary for USDA's marketing and regulatory programmes said this agreement will shorten response times in the event of animal disease outbreaks that will cement US' reputation having the "safest animal health system in the world".

The USAIO is a non-profit organisation of livestock producer groups, working with the animal agriculture industry to provide leadership for the advancement of NAIS.

The agreement will have USAIO focus a comprehensive outreach programme about the important advantages of participation in NAIS to accomplish a significant increase in premises registrations nationwide.

USDA has also announced the availability of US$6 million for cooperative agreements, subject to availability, to support non-profit agricultural organisations to promote NAIS and to increase participation in premises registration.

NAIS consists of three components: premises registration, animal identification and tracing. The premises registration component of NAIS ensures the availability of a nationwide communications network to assist livestock owners and animal health officials in the event of an animal disease event. To date, more than 404,600 premises nationwide.