USDA Plans to Require ID for Interstate Livestock [Edited]

August 11, 2010 — 

Federal officials looking to head off livestock disease outbreaks are drafting regulations that would require farmers to identify animals that move across state lines.

The aim is to reduce illness and deaths by making it easier for officials to trace brucellosis, tuberculosis and other diseases to a particular group of animals, location and time.

The regulations are being drafted six months after the U.S. Department of Agriculture dropped an unpopular voluntary program meant to trace livestock movement, and they are expected to be implemented in 2013.

Last year, more than 19 million of the nation's 30 million beef cows and 9 million dairy cows crossed state lines.

Data from 2006 and 2007 show that only 28% of the nation's adult cattle had any form of official identification that would allow them to be tracked, said David Morris of the USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.

States will have authority to decide how to track livestock moving within their own borders, but they will be accountable to the federal government for the system they choose.

Accountability standards would be created to make sure the state systems are working, Morris said. The aim is to make the regulations flexible, but also to develop and maintain standards.

Official animal identification tags could come from three places: the National Uniform Ear Tagging System utilized by programs such as brucellosis prevention; the 15-digit international standard numbering system; or a numbering system compatible with the USDA's National Scrapie Eradication Program for sheep and goats.

USDA is holding a series of public meetings on the proposed regulations and plans to have a draft rule ready in April 2011. The final rule is expected to be published a year to 15 months after that, with full implementation a year after the final rule is published.

Source: The Associated Press/usatoday.com, August 8, 2010