05/13/05 N.A.I.S. draft plan and timelines

Members of the livestock industry and interested parties will have until June Sixth to comment on U.S.D.A.'s preliminary draft plan and timeline for the agency's proposed National Animal Identification System. When the announcement was made by Ag Secretary Mike Johanns last week, the goal was to frame the draft plan and issues connected to it to foster feedback to develop a final plan that would work for all parties involved. JOHANNS: If we can get the industry's working with us, so the system that's developed works for the industry and it accomplishes the goals that we have set out, then we have a chance of doing this right the first time. So what does this proposal contain? According to Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service Administrator Ron DeHaven, it starts with states having their premises I.D. systems in place by this July. From there, the timeline begins to implement a mandatory I.D. system for the U.S. livestock industry. DEHAVEN: By April of 2007 we would start be putting out alerts to producers that we are soon going to be requiring individual animal I.D. and premises registration, with the thought process being that by January of 2008, we would have mandatory premises registration and individual animal I.D. identification, or as the case may be, group animal identification for those animals that move in lots. And then by of January 2009 we would have a mandatory requirement for reporting animal movements so we could actually track animals through the system. And the draft plan is framed in such a way to solicit comments on questions that could lead to specific answers for the final animal I.D. system & questions pertaining to funding and flexibility of the system, and according to U.S.D.A. Under Secretary Bill Hawks, the biggest issue among producers & confidentiality. And Hawks says the plan will advocate legislation protecting producers from misuse of data collected as part of the National Animal I.D. System, which should alleviate another concern of those in the livestock industry, liability in cases of misuse of confidential data. HAWKS: If they aren't doing anything wrong, there shouldn't be any significant liability. What we're doing here shouldn't create any additional liability. Having said that, we do feel very strongly that this confidentiality is something that needs to be addressed. In our next program, how the draft plan and timeline is playing to the Northwest livestock industry in the context of an upcoming regional animal I.D. symposium.