Source:  Rita Jane Gabbett, MEATINGPLACE.COM, 1/15/10

Eight cattle industry groups have agreed and presented to USDA and members of Congress 12 principles they believe should be integrated into any cattle disease traceability ID system, according to the Livestock Marketing Association.

The groups, at a meeting orchestrated by LMA, agreed that an ID plan for the cattle industry should be species specific because of the diverse ways cattle are raised, marketed and processed.

The principles include:

• Additional costs to the beef and dairy industry must be minimized.
• Cattle ID information must be kept confidential and should be kept under the control of state animal health officials. The only data required to be collected should be that necessary only for cattle disease surveillance, control and eradication.
• There should be renewed emphasis on preventing the introduction of foreign animal diseases.
• The 48-hour foot and mouth disease traceback model is currently unachievable.
• The ID system should operate at the speed of commerce.
• An interstate movement ID program should use as a model the brucellosis/tuberculosis (TB) surveillance and control programs.
• Any ID enhancements of historically established federal and state cattle disease ID programs — beginning with the individual identification of adult breeding cattle — should be modeled after the TB and brucellosis programs, as they existed prior to USDA's National Animal ID System modifications, and voluntarily phased-in over a proper time frame.
• Producers should be protected from liability for the acts of others after the cattle have left the producer's control.
• State animal health officials should continue their historical flexibility and discretion in assigning an identifier for the person responsible for the livestock, such as in an epidemiological investigation or mitigation of a disease outbreak.
• Producers should have the flexibility to use currently established and/or evolving methods of official identification.

The complete 12 principles can be found on the home page of LMA's Web site.

Signing the statement of principles were, in addition to LMA, the American Angus Association, American Farm Bureau Federation, Dairy Farmers of America, National Cattlemen's Beef Association, R-CALF USA, Texas Cattle Feeders Association and the U.S. Cattlemen's Association.

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