Posted: 08.10.2011

The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service is trying to advance a rule that would require livestock that travels between states to be officially identified and accompanied by an interstate certificate of veterinary inspection or other documentation - such as owner-shipper statements or brand certificates.  The program might also help track bad operators - according to Chuck Adami, president and CEO of the Equity Livestock Association.

In an interview with Pam Jahnke, Adami says an animal identification system might assist the dairy industry in detecting animals that come from farms that have been caught misusing antibiotics.  "You know Pam, we have a list of 22 farms around Wisconsin that have been found to have misused antibiotics in their herd more then once,"  Adami says, "If we had an animal identification system in place that allowed us to recognize animals that came from those operations - it would minimize the risk of any cross contamination getting into the food system."  Adami says now, those operations that are already on the "offender" list can still market livestock by channeling them through friends or neighbors - and the purchaser can be unaware.

U.S. Ag Secretary, Tom Vilsack says the last plan to require some documentation on livestock moving from state to state is supposed to be flexible so that states can develop systems that work best for their animal agriculture situation.  Growers that have comments about the proposed rule have until Nov. 9th to submit comments to the USDA.

« back to news articles