APHIS: Animal Disease Traceability Meeting

Animal disease traceability will be the main discussion and topic on USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service meeting of the Secretary's Advisory Committee. The teleconference call will be a 5 hour meeting, which will discuss animal health matters and the traceability framework. The public is encouraged to participate in the meetings.

APHIS Teleconference Meeting Details:

First meeting will be on March 4, 2011, from 12:00 noon to 5:00 p.m. (EST) Dial-In: 888-790-3291 Passcode: 1411045

The other meetings will take place on May 13 and on July 15, which will be teleconferences as well, and will be open to the public. Public participation at these meetings will be listen only.

Since the National Animal Identification System (NAIS) was scraped in 2010, the APHIS has been holding public meetings and discussions on the proposed new traceability system, which will be the Animal disease traceability (ADT) system in the United States.

APHIS will continue its planned and scheduled meetings this year, in an effort to discuss animal traceability, and the need to identify diseases in livestock.

APHIS has spent most of 2010 developing the framework and structure for the proposed new Animal disease traceability, which is intended to be more flexible and producer friendly system, and at the same time providing reliable data for animal movement traceability. Individual states, tribes and producers will have a hands on approach to traceability, but must use ear tags and recording of individual animal ID’s to a centralized state maintained database.

The end result must be a traceability framework, which will enable APHIS to react to animal disease outbreaks, in an effort to eradicate and quarantine livestock in the event of a reported outbreak. Minimizing cost and loss to producers and the livestock industry is the ultimate priority.

By George Luker © Copyright 2011 Livestock-ID

Read more...

Australian Cattle Recovery with RFID

Australia’s National Livestock Identification System (NLIS) is adding more value and purpose beyond its original intent of tracking cattle diseases. Identifying cattle and livestock that have wandered off of farms is being done, quickly and efficiently since they are tagged with RFID ear tags.

Cyclone Yasi that hit and went through north Queensland last week caused so much destruction in the small town and rural area. In the path of destruction are many farms, which have had fences and posts damaged by the cyclone. With the added damages all around, are wandering livestock in the streets and on properties of fellow farmers and neighbors.

The National Livestock Identification System (NLIS) is helping in the recovery of wandering and stranded livestock, which now roam freely along streets, fields, and farms. Since all livestock like cattle and sheep have mandatory RFID ear tags, it is making identification of individual animals that much easier, and livestock are being returned to their rightful owners and farm of origin.

RFID ear tags provide tamper proof identification, which cannot be manipulated, providing secure and reliable identification of livestock. Cattle and sheep have typical EID button tags, while horses have an implanted microchip for equine identification. All these different type of RFID tags provide the exact same purpose, unique identification.

With natural disasters like cyclone Yasi that has hit Australia, Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology along with a national database is proof that the system works. Australian cattlemen begin to round up livestock after cyclone Yasi.

With the cattle recovery in process, this opens a Pandora’s Box on a possible animal disease epidemic. State veterinarians will be monitoring all livestock closely over the next few months for signs of diseases in cattle and sheep.

© Copyright 2011 Livestock-ID

Read more...

Livestock Auction Traceability Initiative

The Canadian livestock and cattle industry get a competitive boast to increase and implement full traceability, with a $20 million three year initiative from the government of Canada. The RFID incentive will further increase the Canadian livestock traceability system that is already in place to be EID compliant.

Animal Identification is a vital part of Canada’s economic growth in the livestock market, both nationally and internationally. In order to keep competitive on the international market, and be compliant with increasing import regulations, the Canadian Cattle industry is working to be fully traceable, reliable, and accountable in all aspects of livestock traceability, from farm to fork.

The Livestock Auction Traceability Initiative (LATI) is a three-year (2011-2014) program with funding from the Agricultural Flexibility Fund.  

The Agricultural Flexibility Fund is a five-year (2009-2014), $500 million fund to help with the implementation of new initiatives, both federally and in partnership with provinces, territories and the livestock industry.

The LATI will cover up to 80 percent of eligible project activities, up to a maximum of $100,000 per facility. The purpose of the Livestock Auction Initiative is to upgrade current facilities and implement RFID panel readers in new ones. All the hardware and software needed to capture the tag EID’s in feedlots is the main priority since this is where the most cattle are assembled and co mingle from different farm of origins. The need to accurately identify individual cattle as they enter and leave the premises is a major requirement. RFID panel readers are the recommended choice of RFID readers for high traffic areas, such as feedlots and auction marts.

The LATI will cover most costs of the readers, training to use them, construction and building materials needed to house and run the readers as well as software and related costs to implement an RFID system.

The Livestock Auction Traceability Initiative is for the following:

Live animal auction marts

Feedlots

Backgrounders

Privately managed community pastures

Animal Assembly Yards

Fairs and Exhibits

Since 2004 the

Canadian cattle industry has been using RFID technology to track animal movements across the country. RFID tagging

of Cattle is mandatory at farm of origin, before cattle leave the herd of origin. Full use of Approved Canadian Cattle RFID tags became mandatory as of January 2010

.

Like many other countries, Canada had chosen Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology to implement a full traceable system. Using RFID cattle tags gives the Canadian Cattle Traceability system the security and integrity of exact identification of individual cattle and its movements.

Additional Resources and Links:
Approved Canadian Cattle RFID Ear Tags

Information on how to apply for the program: www.agr.gc.ca/lati.

LATI Program Guide

© Copyright 2011 Livestock-ID

Read more...