U.S. Animal Identification Plan (USAIP) working group meeting

The Animal Health Committee of the National Milk Producers Federation Jan. 28 hosted a meeting of the U.S. Animal Identification Plan (USAIP) working group in Phoenix.The Committee met to set priorities and identify key issues of their evolving plan. The meeting was scheduled to bring the dairy industry together to form a Dairy Species Subgroup to work on final implementation of USAIP and to develop recommendations which can be shared with the beef industry as part of the USAIP Cattle Species Working Group.

Priorities include implementing the program titled “let’s roll”, education, confidentiality, and making it mandatory. The top three concerns for the group include: 1) getting the program rolling 2) making it mandatory with no set starting date, and 3) establishing demonstration and pilot programs.

Another topic was how the program will be funded. “We all agree we need to see the government put some money into this and it needs to be soon,” said John Adams, USAIP Dairy Species Leader. “The focus of this program needs to be industry driven.”

Producers posed questions on how lost tags would be handled; where new tags would and could be purchased; and who would have access to the information in the database.

The group’s governance subcommittee suggested a structure for an Oversight Board comprised of 12 representatives from industry (weighted heavily with producers); four federal level representatives; four state level representatives and one coordinator.

The USAIP National Steering Committee has developed some Species Working Group Guidelines to provide a road map for each species working group.

Adams added that education is a key component of the program. “Everyone needs to understand the importance of the program. We also need to get state systems up and going. They will be responsible for premise identification for each geographical location that has animals associated with it. Then, we can start worrying about distributing tags and funding.”

The group plans to meet again in early April.