USDA Secretary Mike Johanns announced the latest plans and timelines for implementation of the department’s National Animal Identification System (NAIS). The plan calls for "full implementation" by 2009.
The NAIS is an effort to establish a system by which all pertinent livestock species are identified and their movements recorded to allow for tracking back to the herd of origin within 48 hours. The system is composed of 3 key components: premises registration, animal identification and animal tracking.
USDA has established the criteria necessary to achieve a 48 hour trace back and the data formats necessary for establishing and recording premises identification and individual or group/lot animal identification. Work continues on the third component, animal movement tracking. The department is currently registering premises. Registration information can be found at either the NAIS website or the National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) has an interactive map accessing each state’s animal ID webpage.
The swine industry is moving forward with an animal ID program which adapts the existing animal identification requirements in place since 1989 to comply with the proposed NAIS. Producers are encouraged to register their premises and to begin using the Premise Identification Number (PIN) when identifying their premises. In addition, the industry has agreed to adopt the numbering formats defined in the NAIS for identifying individual animals as well as groups/lots. The Pork Industry Identification Working Group has submitted a plan to the NAIS Subcommittee of the Secretary’s Advisory Committee on Foreign Animal and Poultry Diseases for review. This draft plan addresses specific issues associated with the identification of individual animals as well as groups or lots.
The most contentious debate now centers on how the data will be recorded. As a part of normal business practice in the swine industry all animal movements are recorded in various formats ranging from paper records to computerized databases. If it should become mandatory to report movement data to a centralized database, USDA is examining technology called metadata that would enable access to privately held databases by appropriate state and federal animal health officials.