For more info on a specific newsletter, click the title. Details will be displayed in a new window.
Subscribe to
Computerworld 40 years of the most authoritative source of news and information for IT leaders.
Agriculture head backs national livestock ID system
|
|
|
|
December 31, 2003 (Computerworld) -- Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman yesterday called for the creation of a nationwide animal identification system to help enhance the speed and accuracy of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's response to disease outbreaks, such as the bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) discovered in a single dairy cow in Washington state last week.
The Agriculture Department, livestock producers and processors have developed a program called the U.S. Animal Identification Plan (USAIP) that will use radio frequency identification tags to track livestock from birth to slaughterhouse, with information about the 200 million head of livestock in the U.S. stored in a national database. The system is expected to cost about $600 million to implement.
Such a system, similar to those already in place in other major beef-exporting nations (see story), would help the USDA quickly trace diseased animals back to their birth herds, a key to locating other potentially infected animals. It took the USDA four days to trace the infected Washington state Holstein back to its birth herd, and the department still hasn't traced 81 animals from that herd. Automated systems, such as Australia's National Livestock Identification Scheme, in operation since 1999 and due to go nationwide in July, can do such a trace in a matter of seconds.
At a press briefing yesterday, Veneman didn't say how the USDA intends to fund the livestock ID system. She did say that USDA CIO Scott Charbo would lead the effort to develop such a system. Maria Bynum, a USDA spokesman, said the department couldn't provide funding details at this time and said Charbo is on vacation and unavailable for comment.
On Nov. 20, Rep. Diana DeGette (D-Colo) introduced a bill, HR 3546, calling for improving the USDA's ability to trace all livestock and poultry in the country. But a DeGette spokesman said he couldn't address funding at this time. DeGette plans to look at the funding issue "early in the new year," the spokesman said.
Rod Nilsestuen, secretary of the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture's Trade and Consumer Protection division, said he believes the USDA should help fund the national livestock system, considering the impact that discovery of BSE, also known as mad cow disease, has had on U.S. beef exports and the huge economic hit against the nation's beef industry during the past week.
DeeVon Bailey, an agricultural economist at Utah State University in Logan, estimated the value of the U.S. beef herd has dropped by almost $4 billion in the past week, and said a national livestock ID system aimed at addressing a public health issue should be federally funded. Otherwise, Bailey said, livestock producers and processors might have to pick up a big chunk of the $600 million tab.
Dave Miller, director of commodity services at the Iowa Farm Bureau in Des Moines, said that given the size of the overall federal budget, paying for a national livestock ID system "is not a big deal." He believes Congress will provide the money needed.
|
Print this Story |
|
Send Us Feedback |
|
E-mail this Story |
|
Digg this Story |
|
Slashdot this Story |
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
All Zones Application Performance Zone Enterprise-Class Security Zone Enterprise Solutions Zone The File Data Management Zone Grid Computing on Windows Zone Security Management Zone ITIL Best Practices Zone The SAS Zone Storage Virtualization Zone The Data Center Management Zone |
 See your link here
|
 |
||||||||
| ||||||||
| ||||||||
| ||||||||
|
Download this white paper, free, compliments of Citrix. 
Long Tail Supplier Collaboration - What's In It For You? 
Download this Computerworld Report, free for a limited time, compliments of HP.
Read up on the latest ideas and technologies from companies that sell hardware, software and services.
- The long haul: One company's migration to Vista
- Taste the Sharkbait Widget
- 8 Tips for Landing a Job in '08
- Know Which Risks Matter
- Use Web analytics to turn online visitors into paying customers
- More top stories
Computerworld Executive Briefing: Automating Network Management IThis briefing looks at the basics of network management, which tend to get lost in the dizzying array of products and processes. It also examines new tools that are on the way to help IT executives deal with management in the new era of automation.Download this Executive Briefing now (a $195.00 value), compliments of ProCurve Networking by HP.
|
 Columnist Bert Latamore digs deep to analyze the latest networking trends.
|
| HP StorageWorks EVA4400 Before now, midsize customers settled for either an expensive and complex array or low cost solution that lacked functionality. Now experience virtual storage with enterprise class functionality at an affordable price. View this product demo now
|
CIO
Computerworld
CSO
DEMO
GamePro
Games.net
IDG Connect
IDG World Expo
Infoworld
The Industry Standard
ITworld
JavaWorld
LinuxWorld
MacUser
Macworld
Network World
PC World
Playlist
Copyright © 2008 Computerworld Inc. All
rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium
without express written permission of Computerworld Inc. is prohibited.
Computerworld and Computerworld.com and the respective logos are
trademarks of International Data Group Inc.
|
