Become compliant with the National Animal Identification System (NAIS)

The National ID program has been an extremely important area of focus for the USDA in the last few years. Animal disease outbreaks in other countries as well as the US have forced development of a system which can trace animals from birth to slaughter. The importance of a comprehensive national system has been magnified recently with the problems that have been encountered while attempting to trace the origin of the BSE cow from Alabama. Most other developed countries have long standing national ID programs, so the fact that the US lacks such a system allows the international community to look unfavorably upon our products.

The current plan involves three main steps:

1) Premises Registration
Premises registration is done on an individual state level. Each state then maintains the premises numbers for all animal operations within their state

2) Animal identification
Animal identification rules have not been fully determined for each species, however the cattle working group has recommended that RFID (radio frequency identification) also called EID (electronic identification) tags be used to identify all animals. All ID tags will need to be purchased from an AIN (animal identification number) manager, so that each premise can be “allocated” certain AIN numbers.Your premise ID number will be printed on all tags, which will serve as the first step to animal tracking.

3) Animal Tracking
By 2009, all animals are to be “traceable from birth to slaughter”. Therefore in the case of any disease outbreak, a 24-hour “trace” of any animals an infected animal has come in contact with could be located. This portion of the program involves multiple databases that can be maintained by private companies, (which each will allow full access to the USDA in the case of an animal disease outbreak). The databases will need to be able to trace animal movements from birth to slaughter, incorporating any movements of animals to separate premises this would include custom calf ranches, custom heifer growers, etc.

(NAIS) Timeline:

The Alta ID solution:
Alta places a great deal of emphasis on identification. Since the inception of the Alta Advantage® program 6 years ago, all of the partner herds have had their animals enrolled into the National F.A.I.R. program by Alta Advantage® consultants. This part of the Alta Advantage® program has been very successful and appreciated by our partner herds, and we are excited to offer this service to a broader group of important Alta customers.

Enrollment in the Alta ID program ensures compliance with the National ID program (NAIS) as it is currently defined. The program offers a one-step solution to each of the following:

1) Premises registration with your respective state (if not already done)
2) National ID compliant identification tags (Allflex tags)
3) Identification of all animals into the National F.A.I.R. database, which is one of the databases that the USDA will have access to.

Article by Nate Zwald
AltaAdvantage® Program Manager

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Posted Jun 27th

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