News Update

News Update
October 18, 2007

USDA Approves Two Additional Animal Identification Devices

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) today announced the approval of 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. The devices carry an official animal identification number (AIN), which is used to identify individual animals as part of USDA’s National Animal Identification System (NAIS). USDA is technology neutral and supports a range of NAIS-compliant identification methods. All NAIS-compliant RFID devices are ISO-compliant and therefore, an ISO-compliant reader would read any of them.

“The ability to successfully trace an animal disease to its source is critical to the health and viability of the livestock and poultry industry in the United States,” said Bruce Knight, undersecretary for marketing and regulatory programs. “With efforts to register premises under the NAIS continuing to build momentum, we are looking ahead to the next phases of the program. The approval of additional identification devices provides producers with important options for participating in the voluntary NAIS and increasing 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.

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.

USDA encourages industry to develop NAIS-compliant devices but the Department is “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, streamlined information system that helps producers and animal health officials respond quickly and effectively to animal health events in the United States. The program, which is voluntary at the federal level, consists of three parts: premises registration, animal identification and tracing. So far, more than 416,178 premises across the country have been registered as part of the program, and producers with registered premises have obtained more than 1.6 million AIN devices. 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.

— Adapted from a USDA release.

USDA Announces Cooperative Agreement Funds

USDA is continuing outreach on the NAIS among small and economically disadvantaged producers with $1.8 million, as available, for cooperative agreements through 1890 historically black colleges and universities, Hispanic serving institutions, 1994 tribal land-grant colleges and universities, and tribal organizations.

“We are making steady progress toward 48-hour traceback, and I welcome the participation of these institutions in promoting increased awareness among small and economically disadvantaged producers,” undersecretary Knight said.

The request for proposals (RFP) can be found at www.grants.gov. The RFP provides more detail about the cooperative agreements, including the process for developing and submitting proposals and the amount of funding available. USDA encourages all interested organizations to submit proposals for consideration before Thursday, Nov. 15. Additional information about the NAIS program, along with a link to the RFP, is available at www.usda.gov/nais.

— Release courtesy of USDA.

Farm Bill Moves to Senate Ag Committee Next Week

Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) announced key committee members have agreed on a framework for the Senate version of the Farm Bill, enabling the legislation to go to committee for consideration as early as next week.

Harkin said in a statement the committee hopes to mark up the bill this month.

Majority Communications Director Kate Cyrul told Meatingplace.com that while agreement has been reached on budget numbers for each title, details of each provision of the bill are still being worked out.

Country of Origin (sometimes referred to as COL or COOL) language is expected to be similar to that passed by the House of Representatives earlier this year.

“On country-of-origin labeling, we’ll probably do basically similar to what the House language is. I want to make it very clear, country-of-origin labeling will go into effect next year,” Harkin said during a recent teleconference with reporters.

Senate language regarding a House bill provision that would allow some state-inspected meat to cross state lines was also not clear, though Cyrul noted Harkin has previously expressed doubts about its inclusion.

— compiled by Mathew Elliott, assistant editor, Angus Productions Inc.