The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) issued a proposed rule on August 11 to establish general regulations for improving the traceability of U.S. livestock moving interstate if an animal disease event takes place.
Under the proposed rule, livestock moving interstate would have to be officially identified, unless specifically exempted. The proposed rule encourages the use of low-cost technology and specifies approved forms of official identification for each species, such as metal eartags for cattle.
For more information regarding the proposed animal traceability rule visit http://www.aphis.usda.gov/newsroom/2011/08/pdf/QAtraceabil.VS.pdf or for general information about USDA-APHIS visit www.aphis.usda.gov
The final rule was finally published in the January 9 2013 Federal Register. You can find it here: http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2013-01-09/html/2012-31114.htm
The National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF) comments submitted December 9 can be found here: http://nmpf.org/files/file/NMPF-Comments-Disease-Traceability-120911.pdf
The Cattle ID Group has made its commentary available at: http://www.lmaweb.com/alerts/files/LivestockID/20111117Final%20CIDG%20Rept-ADT%20Proposed%20Rule.pdf
This group will not be submitting comments, but relies on the member organizations and their members to submit comments reflecting their opinions.
The comment period for the proposed rule on traceability has been extended to December 9, 2011. See details at http://www.aphis.usda.gov/newsroom/2011/10/traceability_comment_period.shtml