USAIO Announces Agreement with Y-Tex Corp.

USAIO Announces Agreement with Y-Tex Corp.
Aug. 24, 2006

The board of directors of the United States Animal Identification Organization Inc. (USAIO) announced today that it has completed an agreement with Y-Tex Corp. of Cody, Wyo., a manufacturer of ISO RIFD devices in the United States. Y-Tex joins Allflex USA and Destron Fearing (Digital Angel) in agreeing to manufacture ISO RFID ear tags bearing the USAIO logo.

USAIO is a non-profit, 501(c)(3) corporation that exists to provide the private national repository for animal movement data.

“We are pleased to support the USAIO in its effort to establish a funding mechanism for a non-profit national database system to allow the efficient tracing of animal disease,” said Denny Baustert, vice president of marketing for Y-TEX Corp. “We will offer RFID tags bearing the USAIO logo that will carry a levy, all of which will be returned to USAIO.”

Any livestock owner using the levy-paid tags can enter data into the USAIO data repository at no charge, for the lifetime of each animal identified in this manner. This agreement, along with those announced earlier this week, advance USAIO’s objective of funding the animal movement database in a manner that will minimize cost to industry participants. Under this funding plan, producers’ share of the system costs will be rolled into the purchase price of the ear tag.

“USAIO is committed to funding the system in such a way as to spread the cost across all segments of the industry,” says Kentucky cattleman Charles Miller, chairman of the USAIO board. “We continue to work on funding mechanisms that will draw support for the animal movement database from every sector that will benefit from it.”

Miller added that USAIO’s goal is to deliver a national system that meets the needs of animal health officials for disease surveillance, addresses producer concerns of confidentiality and cost, and is responsive to changing animal identification demands.

USAIO expects to announce additional strategic partnerships that will support the USAIO database, which has completed beta testing and is now being ramped up in the first of three implementation phases.

— release provided by the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association