October 17, 2007

 

USDA approves two additional animal ID systems for NAIS

 

 

The US Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service has approved two new animal identification devices: a visual tag with radio frequency identification (RFID) from Leader Products and the first approved injectable transponder from Digital Angel. These devices will be used to improve the country's National Animal Identification System (NAIS).

 

The devices carry an official animal identification number (AIN), which is used to identify individual animals. All NAIS-compliant RFID devices are ISO-compliant and therefore, an ISO-compliant reader would read any of them.

 

Bruce Knight, undersecretary for marketing and regulatory programs, says the ability to successfully trace an animal disease is critical to the health and viability of the US livestock and poultry sectors. With these innovations, the efforts to register premises under the NAIS continue to build momentum, and this can increase animal disease traceability in the United States.

 

Leader Products is a company based in Australia that also provides tags for the Australian animal identification program. Their tag will be marketed in the United States by EZID of California. The tag is approved for use with bison, cattle, deer, elk and swine.

 

Injectable transponders have been used for many years for proof of ownership, identification and management purposes in a number of animal species. Companies are now developing injectable transponders to meet NAIS specifications.

 

Digital Angel of St. Paul, Minnesota has gotten the nod to produce visual RFID tags and now adds the first approved injectable transponder as a NAIS compliant identification device. The transponder is approved for use in horses, alpacas and llamas. The Equine Species Working Group, comprised of industry and government representatives, has recommended that NAIS use injectable transponders as the preferred method of electronic ID in horses.

 

With these additions, there are now eight approved NAIS-compliant identification devices from five manufacturers. Other approved manufacturers include Allflex USA, Inc., Global Animal Management/Gissler Technologies and Y-Tex Corporation.

 

Though USDA encourages industry to develop NAIS-compliant devices, the department says it stays "technology neutral", meaning it does not support one type or brand of device over another. The intent is to enable producers to have a wide variety of choices when it comes to choosing what will work best for their individual operation.

 

NAIS is a modern, efficient information system that helps producers and animal health officials respond quickly and effectively to animal health events in the United States. The programme, which is voluntary at the federal level, consists of three parts: premises registration, animal identification and tracing. More than 416,178 premises across the country have been registered as part of the programme, and producers with registered premises have obtained more than 1.6 million AIN devices.

 

Only APHIS-approved AIN manufacturers are authorized to manufacture official animal identification devices, which include RFID devices and other methods. For more information on NAIS, a list of approved AIN device manufacturers and information on how to become an approved manufacturer, please visit www.usda.gov/nais.