Kansas Animal Traceback System
August 25, 2010
Animal Traceback system in the works was the message from Bill Brown of the Kansas Livestock Association last week, while speaking at the Beef Fest Producers Seminar.
The Animal Traceback system will be voluntary, except for the provision of animal movements, where the identification of livestock will be mandatory under the Animal Disease Traceability framework, which is expected to be implemented in 2013.
Identification for the program will range from orange calfhood vaccination tags to RFID ear tags. Livestock producers will have a choice of livestock tags to choose from, that will be applicable and compliant for both the Animal Traceaback System and Animal Disease Traceability program.
Brown mentioned the program will be state-run, with oversight from USDA. Animal health officials and state veterinarians are working side by side to standardize the traceback systems. Kansas working group consisting of producers, feeders along with other animal interests will provide input on how the program should be structured.
The Kansas Animal Health Department is in the process of implementing an information management system to track livestock, which eight states already have the system in place. The objective of this system is to protect producer confidentiality, which is an industry concern and priority.
As each state creates and implements its own animal traceback system, it must have the ability to link to the USDA Animal Disease Traceability system for the proposed mandatory identification of interstate animal movements.
For the effectiveness of the Animal Disease Traceability system, it is expected that only approved USDA 840 tags would be used. 840 approved tags are country of origin compliant (COOL) which are the visual and RFID ear tags.
Additional Resources:
How to Improved RFID Tag Retention
USDA: Animal Disease Traceability
Animal Tracking with EID: COOL Animal ID
For more details on the Kansas Animal Traceback System, please visit their website: Kansas Livestock Association
© Copyright 2010 Livestock-ID
2 comments:
This is a great idea and a great initiative taken by Kansas Livestock Association. This should better help track the livestock that goes astray. I just hope that the tags placed on the animals should not cause them discomfort.
Thanks for your comment David,
I agree it is a great initiative by Kansas Livestock Association, my hat is off to them.
They also know the concerns of producers, and are trying to create an animal traceback system, that is compliant with USDA Animal Disease Traceability and producer friendly.
There will be a choice of ear tags to be used, that has not be decided upon yet, but the tags won't cause discomfort to livestock.
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