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USDA to start studying ways to track potentially diseased animals
WASHINGTON (AP)--The U.S. Department of Agriculture is about to start examining systems that could help it locate, within 48 hours, animals that might have Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy or other infectious diseases.
The USDA will spend $18.8 million dollars on the first phase of its multiyear animal identification program, said Bill Hawks, undersecretary for marketing and regulatory programs.
The USDA will examine ways to label the places where animals live, such as farms, ranches and feedlots. These systems might later be enhanced to identify the animals themselves, Hawks said.
In the initial phase, the department will evaluate the pilot programs it currently funds and look for others, Hawks said. Some pilot programs are studying equipment that would identify the animals, such as microchips that can be implanted in individual cattle. Others are creating databases to store records.
The USDA expects that the facilities that keep the animals could start receiving their identification numbers later this year, with identification numbers for livestock possibly following shortly thereafter, Hawks said.
The animal identification program would eventually replace the current hodgepodge of incomplete records that left authorities scrambling after BSE was found in the United States in December.
Officials wanted to track animals born in the same Canadian herd as the Washington state Holstein that was diagnosed with America's only case of the disease. Officials feared the animals could have eaten the same potentially infectious feed.
In the end, the department conceded it would not be able to locate 11 of the 25 animals it most wanted, but said the risk of disease in those animals was extremely small.
Date: 4/29/04
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