In comments submitted to United States Department of Agriculture regarding national animal identification, the National Milk Producers Federation says, in essence, “get on with it.”
In its Dec. 9 letter, NMPF notes that USDA has spent more than 10 years trying to enact a national animal identification program. It also notes NMPF has long supported a mandatory, centralized program that can quickly identify and trace disease outbreaks to their source.
NMPF says now is the time to move forward, even if that requires dairy-specific provisions that not necessarily align with “any requirements for the beef industry.” Elements of the beef industry, most notably the R-Calf organization, have been rabidly opposed to any national ID program.
Concludes Jamie Jonker, NMPF’s V.P. of Scientific and Regulatory Affairs: “USDA has spent more than a decade attempting to establish an animal identification and disease traceability system. The dairy industry has broadly supported mandatory animal identification and disease traceability to serve as a collective industry insurance policy against catastrophic animal disease outbreaks. NMPF believes now is the time for USDA to implement an animal identification and disease traceability system for the dairy industry.”
The complete letter can be found here.
