Tommy
Well-known member
Criticism plentiful at forum on cattle ID system
BY CHRIS CLAYTON
Omaha World-Herald
October 13, 2005
KANSAS CITY, Mo. - A situation related by Nebraska state veterinarian Dennis Hughes at an agricultural forum Wednesday illustrates the importance of having a national animal identification system, he said.
Hughes received several phone calls last week about cattle in western Nebraska with lesions around their mouths.
"Eighteen of 28 head were showing classic symptoms of foot-and-mouth disease," Hughes said. The illness is highly contagious and can prompt the destruction of numerous herds of cloven-hoofed animals.
Hughes said that shortly after receiving the first reports, a horse was found with similar lesions, allowing officials to instantly rule out the possibility of foot-and-mouth disease.
But had it been verified, Hughes said, he would have immediately needed information about all movements of the cattle.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture sponsored Wednesday's forum, which focused on Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns' decision to allow private industry to create what will become the linchpin of the nation's animal-health tracking system.
The USDA wants a private consortium to create a system that would allow state and federal officials to track the movement and source of livestock within 48 hours of a disease outbreak.
"I gave a typical example of what we deal with in the real world - and we get these calls on a Friday afternoon," Hughes said. "Quite honestly, I'm a little skeptical of getting traceability in 48 hours. If it happens on a Friday afternoon, I don't want the information next week. I don't want the information Monday morning. I need it now."
Government and industry officials have said a national system is critical for disease control, for protecting against a possible biological terrorist attack and for winning trading partners' trust.
People involved with helping the USDA set up an animal ID system said they were blindsided by Johanns' decision to turn it over to a private group. A tentative plan developed last spring didn't rule out a private plan, but it assumed that the USDA would manage the database, said Richard Bowman, a North Dakota cow-calf producer and R-CALF member.
"There was never anything developed by our working group about privatizing the tracking system," Bowman said.
John Clifford, deputy administrator for the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, said USDA officials want to be able to find livestock by tapping into one database. He said he doesn't care where the data are, but the system needs to work for livestock producers. Speed is critical.
"Forty-eight hours could be decimating in foot-and-mouth, definitely," Clifford said. "We need it fast and quick."
Patty Lovera, deputy director of the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen, said consumers deserve a mandatory tracking system operated by the federal government.
The USDA failed to track the nation's two mad cow cases in a timely manner, Lovera said. She also noted that if the USDA requests information, it becomes open to public-records requests, which should not be viewed "as an evil to be avoided at all costs."
People representing several groups simply opposed the idea of turning their information over to a private group. There were suggestions that a consortium might try to sell data for profit.
Donn Teske, president of the Kansas Farmers Union, said it was embarrassing for the USDA to outsource an animal identification program while also trying to close Farm Service Agency offices nationally.
"I don't understand why the USDA could tell me I have to give my data to a private industry," Teske said.
Much of the effort to create a private group came from the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, which proposed a private database earlier this year.
While several groups "shot arrows" at the beef association, it is the only group that has proposed a solution, said Allen Bright, a feedlot operator from Antioch, Neb., and a spokesman for the association on the issue. A database could be active as early as January, Bright said.
"The next step really is to have a meeting with various other groups on this issue," Bright said. "Exactly where it goes after today is undetermined."
Clifford said someone needs to step forward and move the proposal of a private consortium ahead. "We're not here supporting one group over another group or one system over another system."
USDA officials and state veterinarians nationally are demanding unlimited access to the database to track livestock diseases.
David Thain, Nevada state veterinarian, said most veterinarians are not concerned about who manages the data, as long as it is accurate. Producer groups should "leave egos at the door" and come together to develop a program, he said.
"There is an opportunity for us to come together for that ultimate goal of 48-hour traceability," Thain said.
While cattle producers are divided, sheep, poultry and pork groups say they already have tracking programs in place and don't see the need to create a database duplicating their current systems. Pork producers, for instance, have had a mandatory identification system since 1988.
"We see no reason at this time to reinvent the wheel for the swine industry," said Bruning, Neb., pork producer Joy Philippi, president-elect of the National Pork Producers Council.
A spokesman for U.S. Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, told participants that the congressman has been working on legislation that would create a mandatory national identification system and a national board to implement it. The spokesman said King believes the legislation would address concerns involving confidentiality.
BY CHRIS CLAYTON
Omaha World-Herald
October 13, 2005
KANSAS CITY, Mo. - A situation related by Nebraska state veterinarian Dennis Hughes at an agricultural forum Wednesday illustrates the importance of having a national animal identification system, he said.
Hughes received several phone calls last week about cattle in western Nebraska with lesions around their mouths.
"Eighteen of 28 head were showing classic symptoms of foot-and-mouth disease," Hughes said. The illness is highly contagious and can prompt the destruction of numerous herds of cloven-hoofed animals.
Hughes said that shortly after receiving the first reports, a horse was found with similar lesions, allowing officials to instantly rule out the possibility of foot-and-mouth disease.
But had it been verified, Hughes said, he would have immediately needed information about all movements of the cattle.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture sponsored Wednesday's forum, which focused on Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns' decision to allow private industry to create what will become the linchpin of the nation's animal-health tracking system.
The USDA wants a private consortium to create a system that would allow state and federal officials to track the movement and source of livestock within 48 hours of a disease outbreak.
"I gave a typical example of what we deal with in the real world - and we get these calls on a Friday afternoon," Hughes said. "Quite honestly, I'm a little skeptical of getting traceability in 48 hours. If it happens on a Friday afternoon, I don't want the information next week. I don't want the information Monday morning. I need it now."
Government and industry officials have said a national system is critical for disease control, for protecting against a possible biological terrorist attack and for winning trading partners' trust.
People involved with helping the USDA set up an animal ID system said they were blindsided by Johanns' decision to turn it over to a private group. A tentative plan developed last spring didn't rule out a private plan, but it assumed that the USDA would manage the database, said Richard Bowman, a North Dakota cow-calf producer and R-CALF member.
"There was never anything developed by our working group about privatizing the tracking system," Bowman said.
John Clifford, deputy administrator for the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, said USDA officials want to be able to find livestock by tapping into one database. He said he doesn't care where the data are, but the system needs to work for livestock producers. Speed is critical.
"Forty-eight hours could be decimating in foot-and-mouth, definitely," Clifford said. "We need it fast and quick."
Patty Lovera, deputy director of the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen, said consumers deserve a mandatory tracking system operated by the federal government.
The USDA failed to track the nation's two mad cow cases in a timely manner, Lovera said. She also noted that if the USDA requests information, it becomes open to public-records requests, which should not be viewed "as an evil to be avoided at all costs."
People representing several groups simply opposed the idea of turning their information over to a private group. There were suggestions that a consortium might try to sell data for profit.
Donn Teske, president of the Kansas Farmers Union, said it was embarrassing for the USDA to outsource an animal identification program while also trying to close Farm Service Agency offices nationally.
"I don't understand why the USDA could tell me I have to give my data to a private industry," Teske said.
Much of the effort to create a private group came from the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, which proposed a private database earlier this year.
While several groups "shot arrows" at the beef association, it is the only group that has proposed a solution, said Allen Bright, a feedlot operator from Antioch, Neb., and a spokesman for the association on the issue. A database could be active as early as January, Bright said.
"The next step really is to have a meeting with various other groups on this issue," Bright said. "Exactly where it goes after today is undetermined."
Clifford said someone needs to step forward and move the proposal of a private consortium ahead. "We're not here supporting one group over another group or one system over another system."
USDA officials and state veterinarians nationally are demanding unlimited access to the database to track livestock diseases.
David Thain, Nevada state veterinarian, said most veterinarians are not concerned about who manages the data, as long as it is accurate. Producer groups should "leave egos at the door" and come together to develop a program, he said.
"There is an opportunity for us to come together for that ultimate goal of 48-hour traceability," Thain said.
While cattle producers are divided, sheep, poultry and pork groups say they already have tracking programs in place and don't see the need to create a database duplicating their current systems. Pork producers, for instance, have had a mandatory identification system since 1988.
"We see no reason at this time to reinvent the wheel for the swine industry," said Bruning, Neb., pork producer Joy Philippi, president-elect of the National Pork Producers Council.
A spokesman for U.S. Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, told participants that the congressman has been working on legislation that would create a mandatory national identification system and a national board to implement it. The spokesman said King believes the legislation would address concerns involving confidentiality.
