In the event of an animal disease outbreak, being able to quickly and efficiently trace the animals’ movement would be vital to controlling the outbreak. This is especially true with livestock and the topic was discussed recently at the Strategic Forum on Livestock Disease Traceability, in Denver, CO.
The meeting was hosted by the National Institute for Animal Agriculture (NIAA) and the United States Animal Health Association to discuss Animal Disease Traceability (ADT) rules established by USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service. Terry Fankhauser, executive vice president of the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association, served as moderator. Attendees represented 34 states, Washington, D.C., three Canadian provinces, and Mexico, as well as 16 producer groups, 13 livestock markets, 18 commercial electronic ID management companies, five fairs and rodeos, state government, USDA and others.
The Animal Disease Traceability 2017 State/Federal Working Group presented the key issues highlighted in listening sessions held around the country.
Major themes addressed during the forum included:
• Involvement of industry and producers in moving forward with ADT;
• Implementation of voluntary versus mandatory regulations;
• Industry concerns for privacy, liability and cost;
• The practicalities of using electronic ID, including data integration and management, the use of low frequency versus high frequency tags, and the requirement of one universal tag.
Chelsea Good, vice president of government and industry affairs at the Livestock Marketing Association (LMA), was asked by WLJ if there were concerns with any of the recommendations by members of her organization. She said the costs associated with identification are a primary concern for livestock market owners and operators. Good noted, “It’s important to remember the true cost of identification goes well beyond the cost of the tag. Other significant costs include labor to tag animals, facility adjustments, risk of injury to livestock or people, shrink, reading equipment for electronic tags, and costs to incorporate these tags and readers into existing systems.” She added that LMA is extremely concerned that these costs could end up being shouldered by certain segments of the industry, especially the livestock markets and possibly cow-calf producers, rather than supported through government cost sharing and spread throughout the industry as a whole.
While carefully watching the guidelines for ADT, Good said that LMA supports smooth implementation of the federal ADT rule, focusing on beef cattle 18 months of age or older, saying, “Based on this, we are pleased that USDA is not pursuing mandatory identification of feeder cattle at this time.” The rule currently applies to adult beef and dairy cattle of all ages.
Good said a recommendation was also made to move to an electronic identification system by 2023. LMA is in the process of getting feedback from its members on the proposals.
She concluded, “LMA will be actively engaged in discussions on how to improve the current ADT program for adult cattle. Some current concerns include a lack of resources to educate about and enforce the current program in the country. These issues need to be addressed prior to any conversation starting about expanding to younger cattle.”
NIAA said several action items were identified at the forum, including:
• The need to focus on existing rules before including additional requirements (such as the inclusion of beef feeder cattle in the ADT regulations);
• The need for integrated data management to coordinate the multiple electronic identification data platforms currently in place in the United States and around the world;
• The need to streamline and optimize the system for ADT planning with a target implementation date within five years (many participants in the forum expressed desire to accomplish ADT regulation implementation much earlier than that); and
• The need for significant industry leadership as the process moves forward.
It was suggested by Ross Wilson, President and CEO of the Texas Cattle Feeders Association, that the producer groups attending the meeting step up and commit to meeting by the end of 2017 to discuss the recommendations of the ADT 2017 State/Federal Working Group, prioritize the list of recommendations, and make a concrete plan for moving forward with next steps. Several industry groups attending the meeting pledged their support for participation in such a meeting.
A summary of feedback on the ADT program is available from UDSA at http://tinyurl.com/yd5n75j7. — WLJ
