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Pork delegates support animal disease traceability

At the recent National Pork Industry Forum in Kansas City, pork producers expressed concern about USDA’s decision to abandon efforts to establish a National Animal Identification System (NAIS).

Pork Act delegates in sessionThe USDA announced in February that NAIS would be replaced by a new animal disease traceability network in which all states and tribes would develop their own traceability programs. Elk Creek, Nebraska pork producer Dennis Beethe, immediate past president of the Nebraska Pork Producers Association, says it leaves Nebraska in a somewhat precarious position.

“With Nebraska being such a big packing state for beef and pork, we have a lot of pigs farrowed in the state, moved out and coming back for harvest purposes.  This could be a great detriment to our state, so this is a very important issue to us.”

The Nebraska delegation was successful in introducing and passing a resolution encouraging producers and states to continue to use nationally standardized premises ID numbers as part of animal ID methods and movement records. Beethe says having that consistency among states is important.

A separate resolution passed by NPPC delegates urges USDA to require all states to develop species specific systems within the new disease traceability network. It says each species group should be permitted to develop its own ID system and that USDA should permit species groups to have mandatory systems if producers within a group approve such a plan.

 Conversation with Dennis Beethe before vote

The National Swine Identification Plan has succeeded in registering more than 85 percent of swine premises in the U.S. Delegates urged its adoption to ensure compatibility and consistency among states.

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