Although state legislatures across the U.S., including our very own Arkansas House legislators like House Ag Committee Chairman Roy Ragland, are recommending the National Animal Identification System remain voluntary, the USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (USDA APHIS) continues to take steps toward nationalization of the rules and regulations of identification and tagging American livestock and other agriculture products.
APHIS recently released a proposed rule regarding official animal identification numbering systems. This proposed rule, published in the Federal Register on Jan. 13 (Volume 74, Number 8, pp. 1624-1643), is entitled USDA APHIS "Official Animal Identification Numbering Systems" and will directly affect Arkansas cattle producers.
APHIS says that this proposed rule is the next step in their development of a nationally integrated, modern animal disease response system and is intended to create greater standardization and uniformity of numbering systems and eartags used in both official animal disease programs and the National Animal Identification System (NAIS).
APHIS states that this proposed rule is following its NAIS business plan. This business plan outlines the overall NAIS program goals and strategies for the next 3-5 years: The immediate focus is on APHIS increasing the quantity of animals identified and traceable to their premises of origin, especially for cattle. The latest version of the NAIS business plan was released in 2008 and can be found by visiting www.ozarksfn.com
The National Cattleman's Beef Association supplied major points of the proposed rule.
Standardization of the AIN/840 tag requirements
This proposed rule will not technically require the use of the animal identification number (AIN). However, it would require that when AINs are used, only those numbers beginning with the 840 prefix will be recognized as official for use. This will be effective for all AIN tags applied to animals one year or more after the date of the finalization of this proposed rule.
Animals that are already tagged will not have to be retagged – APHIS states that it will not be necessary to retag animals that have been officially identified prior to the yet unnamed "one year or more after the finalization of this proposed rule."
Premises Identification Numbers (PINs)
This proposed rule would remove the PIN format that uses the state postal abbreviation and proposes to create a single national format for PIN. All new PINs that are issued on or after the effective date of this rule will be required to use the seven-character alphanumeric code format instead of the state postal abbreviation that is currently allowed.
Animals that are currently identified with a premise-based numbering system that uses a postal-code PIN would not have to be retagged because the proposal is intended to be applied going forward. If the owner of the premises has obtained a new seven-character PIN, older eartags employing the postal-code PIN as a means of identifying animals will be cross-referenced with the seven-character PIN in the premises registration system maintained by the state that issues the postal-code PIN.
New Requirements for Official Eartags:
U.S. shield use, eartag numbering systems and correlation of numbering systems with PINs
The use of the U.S. shield will be allowed only on official identification devices approved by APHIS and all official eartags would be required to bear the U.S. shield. This requirement applies to official eartags issued one or more years after the date of the finalization of this proposed rule, with the intent being to allow producers adequate time to work through existing inventories of eartags.
Going forward, official eartags used in animal disease programs could only be issued to registered premises that have PINs.
When AIN eartags are used, the AINs would have to be correlated with the PINs of the premises to which they are issued (i.e., AIN eartags could only be issued to registered premises that have PINs). AINs would be correlated with PINs using the AINMS.
National Uniform Eartagging System definition change to codify existing practices
This system is an APHIS means for identifying individual animals in commerce. APHIS is proposing to add a National Uniform Eartagging System definition to certain sections of the Code of Federal Regulations. This change would define the System as a numbering system for the official identification of individual animals in the U.S. providing a nationally unique identification number for each animal. The proposed definition would also note that individual APHIS disease control programs may specify which National Uniform Eartagging System format to use.
Need for information regarding economic and other implications to small entities and producers
APHIS states that they currently do not have all the data necessary for a comprehensive analysis of the effects of this proposed rule on small entities. APHIS is particularly interested in determining the potential costs to eartag manufacturers and livestock producers.
APHIS states that since it is not the intent of this proposed rule to set a date by which AIN eartags for all adult animals must conform to the 840 format, they believe that there should be few, if any, animals that would need to be retagged.
While APHIS does not expect requiring the use of the 840 prefix for the AIN to have significant economic effects on the livestock industry, they do not have data to quantitatively estimate potential costs at this time, and are requesting public comment. Potential costs would include reformatting expenses for eartag manufacturers as the USA and manufacturer's code numbering systems are eliminated. Other potential costs are the costs to producers who may, because of this proposed rule, have obsolete inventory costs in the form of eartags that were imprinted with one of the eliminated numbering systems.
This information was compiled from the National Cattleman's Beef Association.
At press time, a federal court had ruled that records collected under the NAIS would be protected by the U.S. Privacy Act, and exempt from disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act. Read more at www.ozarksfn.com.
