USAIO promotes animal identification system

This partnership is a result of livestock producers learning more about the animal health and economic benefits of the National Animal Identification System (NAIS).

“NAIS provides a system that will shorten response times in the event of an animal disease outbreak, to further strengthen our reputation as the safest animal health system in the world,” said Bruce Knight, undersecretary for USDA’s marketing and regulatory programmes. “This agreement recognises the relationship among USAIO partners in the livestock industry to build upon the growing support for the NAIS programme,” he said.

The USAIO is a non-profit organisation of livestock producer groups, working with the animal agriculture industry to provide leadership for the advancement of NAIS.

Under the agreement, USAIO will focus a comprehensive outreach programme about the important advantages of participation in NAIS to accomplish a significant increase in premises registrations nationwide.

USDA has also announced the availability of $6 million for cooperative agreements, subject to availability, to support non-profit agricultural organisations to promote NAIS and to increase participation in premises registration.

NAIS consists of three components: premises registration, animal identification and tracing. The premises registration component of NAIS ensures the availability of a nationwide communications network to assist livestock owners and animal health officials in the event of an animal disease event. More than 404,600 premises nationwide have been registered to date.