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Texas, Oklahoma set to begin animal ID field test
LUBBOCK, Texas (AP)--Animal health officials in Texas and Oklahoma will soon begin field testing an animal identification system that could lead to a national network to track diseased poultry and livestock across the country.
The two states, as well as the Osage Nation Reservation in Oklahoma, have received $1.7 million from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to begin testing the system within the next two months.
The goal is to help authorities find animals infected with mad cow or other diseases within 48 hours.
The test will involve about a hundred producers and about 80,000 head of cattle, said Dr. Bob Hillman, executive director of the Texas Animal Health Commission.
For the field test, producers will assign precise identification numbers to registered producers within their state or region who volunteer to participate.
They also will work together to test computer software and hardware to help track cattle movement across state lines. The test will last 12 months.
Animal health officials will evaluate electronic tags on cattle and the readers that will scan the tags as cattle move from farm to market. That includes auctions, feedyards and slaughterhouses, Hillman said.
The project will reveal what needs changing "to make this thing work. Can we effectively ID cattle, put them in system and track them electronically?" he said. "Once we can get it fully implemented it will be significantly beneficial to producers and to us in tracing disease."
Osage County in Oklahoma is home to the Osage Nation Reservation where a large percentage of the land is devoted to cattle ranching.
When a national system is fully implemented, tribes also will participate, said Diane Daniels, director of the tribe's environmental protection division.
"We thought it was important that we come up with a plan on how tribal lands will be integrated into this tracking system," she said.
Government and industry representatives began developing a nationwide tracking system to be phased in over the next several years about a decade ago--well before a Holstein in Washington state tested positive for bovine spongiform encephalopathy.
Currently, the national system is only a plan on paper, said Matt Brockman, spokesman for the Fort Worth-based Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association.
"We've got to put this thing on the ground and test drive it," he said. "To not do so would be foolish and potentially cost producers and industry a lot of money."
In August, the U.S. Department of Agriculture awarded $11.6 million to 29 state and tribes to advance the system toward full implementation, including Texas, Oklahoma and the Osage. In all, 40 states and tribes had applied.
President Bush's 2005 fiscal budget calls for $33 million for the ID system and a portion of that could be used to fund similar projects in the 11 states and tribes that weren't selected for funding.
The government has not ruled out making the identification system mandatory, said Amy Spillman, a spokeswoman for the USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.
"We're starting with a voluntary program and we're going to see what works and what doesn't," she said. "We may go mandatory but we would propose rules and allow for a public comment period."
Date: 10/21/04
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