Existing livestock information-gatheringprograms may already hold the basic

data and infrastructure necessary for anationwide animal identification (ID) andtraceability system. The next step toward anID and traceability system is “taking abusiness approach” to capitalize on thesuccess of those existing programs and focusefforts on the industry segments that offerthe greatest return on investment. That wasthe message of National Animal

Identification System (NAIS) programcoordinators speaking at the 2007 ID InfoExpo, a meeting hosted by the NationalInstitute for Animal Agriculture (NIAA),Aug. 28-30, in Kansas City, Mo.

“We’ve come a long way toward the goalof developing a system to conduct diseasetraceability within 48 hours. Now we mustestablish species-specific actions that ensureincremental progress continues,” said NeilHammerschmidt, NAIS program

coordinator for the U.S. Department ofAgriculture (USDA). “A new documentunder development by USDA takes abusiness approach to implementing NAIS,meaning it targets efforts with the greatestreturn on invested resources.”

“The business plan lays out the strategiesby which we can increase the level oftraceability among different species. Itdescribes how we plan to integrate the NAISdata standards into existing diseaseprograms,” USDA Chief Veterinary OfficerJohn Clifford said. “We need to take the datastandards that have been developed forNAIS and put them into place in ourexisting disease programs, as well as look atother things that can assist us withtraceability in the integration of systems thatexist out there today without muchadditional cost.”

Titled “Advancing Animal DiseaseTraceability,” the NAIS business plan, whichwas to be publicly released in October,outlines seven key strategies for achievingprogress toward a comprehensivetraceability infrastructure. It alsorecommends actions to enable existingindustry-administered animal health andmarketing programs, state/federallyregulated animal health programs, andvarious animal ID techniques to work inharmony.

■ Strategy 1:Prioritizing species, segments

The first strategy outlined in the NAISbusiness plan is prioritizing species, whichensures that resources are applied wheretraceability advances are of the highestimportance. Factors that influenced theranking of species include capability ofexisting infrastructure, risk of disease andpotential for disease spread, human healthrisk, and economic merit.

The primary commercial food animalindustries — cattle, poultry, swine, sheepand goats — topped the list of priorityspecies, explained John Wiemers, NAISanimal ID coordinator. Also included as aTier 1 priority species is the competitionhorse industry, due in part to frequentanimal movements.

“Of the Tier 1 species, bovine is ourhighest priority,” Wiemers said.

“Without a question, cattle have the mostto gain from NAIS,” USDA UndersecretaryBruce Knight agreed.

Second priority includes caprine (goats),cervids (deer and elk), equine, poultry andporcine (swine). Last is ovine (sheep).Wiemers explained that the success of theScrapie eradication program, and the animalID data that it incidentally includes, won the

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“I want to make sure that this business

plan is transparent enough that both the

proponents and the opponents of animal ID

can look at it and see where we’re going.”

— Bruce Knight

The Business

of IDUSDA plans to advance

animal ID and traceability through “a business approach” that uses existing

industry program infrastructure to reduce labor, costs.

Story & photos by Meghan Richey

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sheep industry the lowest-risk placing.Vertical integration of the pork and poultryindustries aided in their lower ranking, hesaid.

Within the high-risk bovine category, thespecific segments have also been prioritized.Breeding stock will receive the mostattention, focusing on cows and heifers inboth the beef and dairy industries. Nextpriority is feeder cattle.

“Focusing on the breeding herd is thesource of the biggest bang for our buck,”Wiemers said. “We will continue to workwith species working groups and seekinteraction with existing domestic programssuch as quality system assurance (QSA)programs, breed registries and performancerecords, and other industry alliances to focusefforts in these economically importantareas.”

■ Strategy 2:Harmonizing government, industry programs

The need for unique animal ID ingovernment and industry programs isaccelerating, Wiemers said. As such, thesecond strategy outlined in the NAISbusiness plan is harmonizing animal IDsystems currently in place.

Examples of existing information-gathering programs that assign IDs includedisease eradication programs, interstatecommerce, breed registries, and age- andsource-verification programs.

“With these programs, livestock may beidentified multiple times yet still not befully traceable because separate programsuse distinct ID protocols. The result is aseries of incompatible databasesmaintained by states, the private sector andUSDA Animal Plant Health Inspection

Service (APHIS) Veterinary Services (VS)information technology structure,”explains a traceability synopsis publishedby USDA.

For example, if your cattle werevaccinated as part of the BrucellosisEradication Program, they were assigned IDnumbers. If you register your cattle in theAmerican Angus Association’s breed registryand performance programs, your cattle haveanother set of ID numbers. Additionally, ifyou move your cattle across state lines, theymost likely have IDs from interstatecertificates of veterinary inspection (ICVI)records.

The NAIS business plan proposesharmonizing these programs and others toavoid data duplication and allow one uniqueset of data assigned to each animal to beused in multiple programs for multiplepurposes.

■ Strategy 3:Converging data standards with existing programs

Existing disease programs are successfulin controlling disease risk, but Wiemers saidthey can leave traceability gaps because the

data standards are not uniform fromprogram to program.

“Disease control programs have alwaysassigned premises numbers whenresponding to any disease incident. Thiscreates duplicate premises numbers when asingle location has more than one diseaseincident because each incident has its owndata record,” Clifford explained. “NAIS willassign unique data numbers to preventmultiple numbers for the same location.”

“The NAIS provides the common datastandards required to close traceability gaps,”Wiemers said.

In July 2007, USDA published the finalrules on NAIS data standards needed toensure compatibility across informationsystems, he explained. The three datacomponents of NAIS are premisesidentification numbers (PINs), whichidentify where animals are raised, held orboarded; animal identification numbers(AINs), which identify individual animalsbased on premises of origin; and group/lotidentification numbers (GINs), whichidentify animals that typically move throughthe production chain in groups.

Wiemers said the NAIS data standardscan be used to replace previous non-standardized numbers, with emphasis ondatabases that record locations importingand exporting livestock, locationsparticipating in official disease-controlprograms, and origin and destinationlocations listed on ICVI records.

“Common data standards can enablethese separate program databases to sharelocation and animal ID data essential todisease control,” reads USDA’s traceabilitysynopsis. “This approach conserves time,money and effort by drawing from systemsand data already in place.”

■ Strategy 4:Integrating automated data-capture technology

The fourth strategy of the NAIS business

The Business of ID CONTINUED FROM PAGE 227

Where are we now?The National Animal Identification System (NAIS) is a voluntary program that aims to

safeguard U.S. animal health through animal identification (ID) and 48-hour tracebackcapability in the event of a disease outbreak. It consists of three components: premisesregistration, animal ID and traceability.

Premises registration. Since September 2004, more than 419,400 premises have beenregistered, representing nearly 30% of the 1.4 million livestock farms estimated to be inthe United States by the National Agricultural Statistics Survey (NASS).

Animal ID. There are now eight animal identification number (AIN) devices approved forNAIS use. They’re made by five manufacturers and include seven visual tags with radiofrequency identification (RFID) and one injectible transponder. All AINs that have beenissued are linked to premises identification numbers (PINs).

Twenty-eight percent of the adult cattle population has been issued an AIN. The U.S.Department of Agriculture (USDA) recommends 70% as the critical mass necessary forbovine participation in the NAIS.

Traceability. Traceability is accomplished by the Animal Trace Processing System (ATPS)and the Animal Tracking Database (ATD). There are now close to 20 ATDs participating inNAIS.

Neil Hammerschmidt John Clifford

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plan is to integrate electronic data captureand reporting technologies into existingdisease programs.

Disease programs such as Brucellosis(Bang’s disease) vaccinations andtuberculosis (TB) testing will collect dataelectronically by using NAIS-compliantradio frequency identification (RFID)devices and integrating handheld readers toreplace paper-based forms, Wiemers said.Animal health officials will then be able toelectronically record and submit essentialdata to the USDA Animal Health andSurveillance Monitoring database or otherappropriate animal health database. USDA’straceability synopsis says that this electroniccollection of data will “increase volume andquality, minimize data errors, and speed dataentry into a searchable database.”

USDA is also helping to distribute RFIDtags to increase electronic data capturecapabilities in the highest-risk areas.

“We are in the process of procuring 1.5million RFID tags to be distributed to areasof higher disease risk, such as the TBaccredited-free zone in Michigan or areasaround Yellowstone Park where migrantdeer and elk herds can transmit Johne’sdisease,” Clifford explained.

■ Strategy 5:State partnerships

Just as the priorities of each species aredifferent, so are the animal health prioritiesof individual geographic regions, said DavidMorris, senior staff veterinarian for USDA.The fifth strategy of the NAIS business planis to work in close partnership with state andtribal officials to support the advancementof each region’s disease traceabilityinfrastructure. States and tribes willadminister localized plans reflecting theirregion’s specific animal health priorities.

■ Strategy 6:Industry collaboration

As part of the sixth strategy, USDA has

entered into cooperative agreements withindustry organizations to support premisesregistration, Morris explained. “Producerorganizations representing member interestscan accelerate the adoption of practices thatadvance traceability,” USDA’s traceabilitysynopsis says.

Examples of these industry partnersinclude the National Pork Board, the U.S.Animal Identification Organization(USAIO), the National FFA Organization,IDairy and the American Angus Association,among others. (See “Angus joins USDA toregister premises.”)

Accredited veterinarians are also beingtargeted for partnership because they are“on-farm experts and often serve as first-responders in disease situations. They areconduits for information and can enhancethe adoption of NAIS standards in everydaymanagement and disease program activitiesat the producer level,” Morris said.

Additionally, existing infrastructure andtrained personnel in the Western brandstates are also a source of government-industry collaboration. Auction markets,feedlots, harvesting facilities and otherindustry sectors are also a priority.

■ Strategy 7:Advancing ID technologies

As part of the seventh and final strategy ofthe NAIS business plan, USDA will focus onestablishing performance standards for IDdevices and evaluating emergingtechnologies that can operate at the “speedof commerce,” Morris said. The AmericanSociety for Testing and Materials (ASTM)will be involved.

“Advancements in traceability requirepractical, affordable technology solutionsthat improve efficiency and accuracy ofanimal ID data collection,” Morris said.

Outcomes“We have folks out there in the countryside

who are very supportive of animal ID, and we

have folks who are a little less enthused aboutit. I want to make sure that this business planis transparent enough that both theproponents and the opponents of animal IDcan look at it and see where we’re going,”Knight said. “I think the opponents will becomforted by it in realizing that this isn’t aninvasion of their privacy, and proponents willbe comforted by it because they can see wherethey fit into it and how they will benefit froma comprehensive animal ID system.”

Angus joins USDA toregister premises

In early August, the U.S. Departmentof Agriculture (USDA) and the AmericanAngus Association entered a partnershipthat will facilitate the registration of upto 15,400 new premises as part of theNational Animal Identification System(NAIS), according to a USDA release. Thepremises registration component ofNAIS ensures the availability of anationwide communications network toassist livestock owners and animalhealth officials in the event of an animaldisease event.

Under the agreement, Anguseducational efforts will include on-siteeducational discussions through theAssociation’s Outreach Seminars andother educational programs, printadvertising, direct mail, e-mailcommunications and online training.

For more information visitwww.angus-nais.org.

John Wiemers David MorrisBruce Knight

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