AVMA Supports National Animal Disease Traceability Program

The American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) applauds the release of the USDA-Animal Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) proposed rule on animal disease traceability and affirms its support for a collaborative, transparent, and flexible rule for establishing traceability to protect the health of our nation's animal herds and flocks.
The proposed rule states that equines would need to be identified by one of the following methods:

• "A description sufficient to identify the individual equine, as determined by a State or Tribal animal health official in the State or Tribe of destination, or APHIS representative, including, but not limited to, name, age, breed, color, gender, distinctive markings, and unique and permanent forms of identification when present (e.g., brands, tattoos, scars, cowlicks, or blemishes)";
• Electronic identification (i.e., microchipping);
• Digital photographs of the equine sufficient to identify the individual equine, as determined by a State or Tribal animal health official in the State or Tribe of destination, or APHIS representative; or
• For equines being transported commercially for slaughter, a USDA backtag.

"We commend the collaborative approach taken by USDA-APHIS to develop this proposed rule and look forward to providing our comments," states Ron DeHaven, DVM, chief executive officer of the AVMA. "From a veterinary perspective, preventing and controlling the spread of infectious disease is paramount to protecting our nation's herds and flocks and maintaining a safe food supply.
"While the rule has yet to be finalized, the AVMA will continue to be an active voice for veterinarians and will work with the USDA to ensure that the final rule provides for an effective animal disease traceability system while minimizing the burden on those responsible for its implementation," DeHaven says.
For more information, please visit www.avma.org.

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Pioneering National Microchipping Month Campaign

National Micro chipping Month, organized by the Kennel Club of Great Britain, takes place every year to highlight the benefits of micro chipping animals, and the need to keep details associated with every animal chip's to date.

Have you updated your information lately? Help reunite owners and lost pets.

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Livetrack Wand Reader Software Demo Video

From Syscan-ID RFID software video.

  The video shows how to use Syscan’s Livetrack RFID software. Used for Animal Identification.

 

Livetrack Manager

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USDA Moves to Make Animal ID More Cost Efficient.

 

U.S. Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack announced a change of direction for animal disease traceability in the U.S. The new framework will apply only to animals moved in interstate commerce. States and tribal nations will administer the program to provide more flexibility. Lower-cost animal identification technology will be encouraged.

Changes in the program are based on input gathered during last year's listening tour featuring stops at 15 locations. Vilsack said following these meetings, it was apparent a new strategy was needed.

"I've decided to revise the prior policy and offer a new approach to animal disease traceability with changes that respond directly to the feedback we heard," said Vilsack.

One of USDA’s first steps will be to convene a forum of state and tribal nation animal health leaders. The meeting will be used to initiate dialogue that leads to a flexible, coordinated approach to animal traceability for disease purposes. USDA also will reportedly address limiting animal owner liability and maintaining producer confidentiality.

USDA is moving forward.

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EU Lamb EID tagging Now Mandatory

New European Union rules for sheep farmers have come into force meaning all newborn lambs will have to be electronically tagged.

It is hoped the move will allow animals to be traced more easily.

Rural Affairs Minister Elin Jones said concessions secured from Europe should make it easier for Welsh farmers to implement the new regulations.

However, NFU Cymru said it will not necessarily mean that all newborn lambs born in 2010 will have to be tagged.

Ms Jones said: "The concessions we have secured from Europe should make it much easier for Welsh farmers to implement the EU regulations around sheep tagging.

"As of today sheep farmers will need to consider which slaughter tags they use to identify their 2010 lambs.

Nine million

"My officials will be issuing guidance and a revised flock record to all registered sheep and goat farmers in early January to help them through the new process.

"I would also urge farmers to seek advice from my officials on this issue as they will be able to provide detailed information on all aspects of the regulation."

Welsh Assembly Government officials will be advising farmers on this issue at a number of road shows across Wales during January.

There are nine million sheep in Wales and nearly half of Welsh farms keep the animals.

Read full article here. Source: BBC News

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70% Rebate on RFID Readers for Saskatchewan Cattle Producers.

We would like to send a reminder to all our customers in Saskatchewan, the the 70% rebate program is in effect on all readers, scales, software, and  accessories related to RFID Cattle traceability.

 

You may view our line of RFID wand readers, scales, software, and accessories at our online store. Animal ID Systems.

For further information and applications on the 70% rebate to the producer program in Saskatchewan, please contact us at animalidsystems@gmail.com

We carry products from Syscan-ID, Agrident, Reliable Scales, Cattlemax, Psion Teklogix, Motorola. We also carry important supplies like battery packs, Cigarette lighter adapters, USB to Serial adapters and much more. 

  

 

We can also create custom RFID kits, consisting of RFID wand reader, software, mobile hand held's, scale indicator, and weigh bars.

Contact us for further details on our kits.

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RFID Ear tags, using tag EID for management purpose

The Canadian Cattlemen Association (CCA) has recently launched a new program called the Beef InfoXchange System or BIXS. This program is part of the Canadian Beef Advantage (CBA) program, the branding of Canadian beef for domestic and international markets, which is operated by CCA. The program has been developed because of requests from beef producers across Canada to use the unique individual animal electronic ID tags (RFID), required by all beef cattle leaving the herd of origin, to track specific individual animal data such as carcass information and pass this information up and down the chain as desired. The reports generated by the BIXS program will have the ability to highlight obvious problems or advantages. This will include analyses of the top 10 and the bottom 10 percent of your herd against the average of the general BIXS population for such variables as average daily gain in the feedlot, weaning weights, quality and yield grades.

BIXS is a national voluntary no-charge web-based database designed to capture and exchange data linked to an animals RFID tag. As BIXS develops it will turn into a valuable tool for cow-calf, feedlot and processor participants to track animal production, performance, health, genetic, economic and carcass data across the chain on an individual animal basis. The program will make it possible to communicate and build business relationships based upon accurate reliable individual animal data. Down the road the long term goal is to improve efficiencies at the ranch and feedlot level which in turn will lead to economic and overall quality benefits. Over time this will become an integral part of marketing cattle from calves to back-grounding, finishing, purebreds and on up the chain to retail, restaurants and the export market.

The BIXS program is being tested out by a group of about 100 supportive cow-calf producers and other partners across Canada. These producers are helping to test out the registration and animal data upload and transfer process to see if there are any glitches that need to be worked out before it goes to full launch to cow-calf producers and feedlots this fall. Although there is no fee for the program there is important data that needs to be entered especially at the feedlot level; information such as premise ID, date the cattle arrived, the weight of the cattle and of course the individual RFID tag number.

Read the full article here. Source: Omineca Express

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