Identification will be law!

Every animal will soon have to be traceable from place of birth to slaughter

The National Animal Identification System (NAIS) is a national program intended to identify animals and track them as they come into contact with, or commingle with, animals other than herd mates from their premises of origin. NAIS will allow rapid tracing of animals during an outbreak situation, helping to limit the scope and expense of the out break and allowing APHIS to minimize the impact on domestic and foreign markets. USDA’s long-term goal is to establish a system that can identify all premises and animals that have direct contact with a foreign animal disease or a domestic disease of concern within 48 hours of discovery. Partnerships among all stakeholders are the foundation for achieving this tremendously important and extremely challenging goal.

The Key Components

Premises Identification: Identifying locations where animals are born, animals are managed or held is the starting point of the NAIS.

Animal Identification: This program will allow a standard way to identify individual animals with a unique Animal Identification Number (AIN) or if they are managed

Animal Tracking: When an animal moves from their birth premises to another premises a few basic pieces of information will be reported to the national animal records repository: the AIN, the premises number of the receiving location and the date on which the animal was moved.

The Dairy industry in the US initially started a similar program in 1998. The National Farm Animal Identification & Records (FAIR) program was a pilot started by the USDA. The USDA will be a national data repository with very limited, high-level information on each animal record, and the National FAIR & Holstein will be able to send electronically and automatically the necessary data to USDA to keep the producers and animals compliant for National Animal ID.

“The best advice I can give people today that are using visible tags already is to start putting the RFID tags in calves born today, and going forward. With USDA’s plan, RFIDs will be mandatory in 2008, so to prevent having to re-tag cows down the road, if you tag them today, they will be set when they reach the milking herd. Each farm should also contact their state department of Ag to get an official “Premises ID” for the farm.” – Jodi Luttropp, Holstein Foundation Programs Manager.

More information on the NAIS program visit http://www.usda.gov/nais or on the FAIR program visit http://www.nationalfair.com.

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Posted Jun 8th

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