Animal Identification and Traceability: Overview and Issues

Randy Schnepf
Specialist in Agricultural Policy

On February 5, 2010, Secretary of Agriculture Vilsack announced that USDA was revising its approach to achieving a national capability for animal disease traceability. The previous plan, called the National Animal Identification System (NAIS), first proposed in 2002, was being abandoned. In its place USDA proposes a new approach that will allow individual states (and tribal nations) to chose their own degree of within-state animal identification (ID) and traceability for livestock populations. Under this revised focus, states may chose to have no mandatory animal ID and traceability capability, or to rely on existing ID systems already in place to fight brucellosis, tuberculosis, and other contagious animal diseases, or to develop their own version of a more detailed birth-to-market ID system as originally proposed under NAIS. The flexibility is intended to allow each state to respond to its own producer needs and interests. 

However, under the proposed revision USDA will require that all animals moving in interstate commerce have a form of ID that allows traceability back to their originating states. This may involve something as simple as a small ear-tag or as elaborate as an embedded radio frequency ID tag. Each state will determine the device or method adopted for its livestock. The Secretary of Agriculture derives the authority to regulate interstate movement of farm-raised livestock from Section 10406 of the Animal Health Protection Act (P.L. 107-171, Subtitle E; 7 U.S.C. 8305). 

The within-state programs are intended to be implemented by the states and tribal nations, not the federal government. As such, any data collection and storage would be done by state, not federal, authorities. However, the larger program governing traceability of interstate animal movements and coordination between different state "ID and traceability programs" will be implemented through federal regulations and the federal rule-making process. Because of the rule-making process, USDA suggests, it may take at least two years before any type of formal plan is in place. 

Since 2004, USDA has spent $142 million trying to get NAIS up and running. Since 2008, key committee leaders in Congress have expressed frustration with the slow pace of NAIS implementation and, as a result, have reduced annual funding appropriations for the program. 

USDA's decision to revise NAIS was made after a series of 15 listening sessions across the country in 2009, and after receiving thousands of comments concerning NAIS. While the poultry and pork industries have endorsed a mandatory national animal ID program in general, certain portions of the U.S. cattle industry have shown strong resistance to what they perceive as a costly government intrusion in their private affairs. Participation in the initial phase of the NAIS, premises registration, reflected this same degree of interest, as very high percentages of eligible premises were registered for most major animal species—poultry (95%), sheep (95%), swine (80%), goats (60%), and horses (50%)—with the exception of cattle (18%). USDA has stated that such a low participation rate for cattle renders NAIS ineffective as a tool for controlling animal disease, and that a much higher participation rate is necessary to respond effectively to an animal disease outbreak. Under the new proposal, USDA anticipates much higher participation rates. 

Lawmakers in the 111th Congress continue to monitor USDA's work on animal ID and traceability, and could propose legislation aimed at shaping its scope, design, and pace of implementation, as well as possible federal financial support of state-level programs.


Date of Report: February 19, 2010
Number of Pages: 49
Order Number: R40832
Price: $29.95

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