USDA Proposes Plan to Improve Animal Disease Traceability
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection
Service (APHIS) has issued a proposed rule that would establish regulations
to improve the traceability of livestock moving interstate when disease has
been identified. According to APHIS, the proposal aims to provide a new
“adoptable approach that will help us find animals associated with a disease
quickly, focus our efforts on those animals, and minimize harm to producers.”
Defining animal disease traceability as “knowing where diseased and at-risk
animals are, where they’ve been, and when,” the plan would require livestock
moving interstate, unless exempted, to be (i) officially identified by approved
forms for each species, such as metal eartags for cattle, and (ii) accompanied
by an interstate certificate of veterinary inspection or other documentation,
such as owner-shipper statements or brand certificates. Alternative forms of
identification, such as brands or tattoos, would be permitted if agreed to by
receiving states or tribes, which would administer the traceability framework
to provide more flexibility. Producers who raise animals to feed themselves,
their families and immediate neighbors would be exempt, and those animals
would also be exempt if moved interstate to custom slaughter facilities.
Addressing the cattle industry, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack asserted
that current “low levels of official identification in the cattle sector require
more cattle, often thousands of head, to be tested more than necessary.” The
proposed rule would require fewer cattle to be held and tested, thus affecting
fewer producers and reducing economic impacts, he said. Noting that bovine
tuberculosis investigations can frequently take several months, Vilsack said
the plan could reduce trace-back investigations to weeks or days.
USDA requests comments on the proposal by November 9, 2011. See USDA Press Release and Media Conference Transcript, August 9, 2011; Federal Register, August 11, 2011.
