WASHINGTON-(Bloomberg)--The current voluntary national animal-identification system isn't working and a new plan, involving only livestock moved in interstate commerce, will be put in place, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said.
Vilsack said he'll convene a meeting of animal-health leaders to help develop the plan, which will be administered by the states and by American Indian nations and will encourage the use of lower-cost technology.
"It is apparent that a new strategy for animal-disease traceability is needed," Vilsack said in a speech prepared for delivery today to a meeting of the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture in Washington. Vilsack said he's acting after receiving thousand of comments from the public, industry groups and farmers.
The USDA proposed a mandatory national plan a week after the U.S. disclosed its first case of mad cow disease on Dec. 23, 2003. That animal was born in Canada. The USDA said the goal of the system should be to be able to trace a sick animal back to its birth site within 48 hours.
The agency changed to a voluntary system in April 2006 after implementation delays and complaints from some ranchers and farmers that the program would provide competitors and the government with access to privileged information. Three years later, only about 37 percent of the country's 1.4 million livestock-raising sites were registered under the program, the USDA said in May.
