The National Animal Identification System (NAIS) has been under development for about four years and it helps livestock owners, including bucking bull owners, breeders and animal health officials respond quickly and effectively to animal disease events. NAIS, voluntary at the Federal level, is a Federal-State-industry partnership that helps protect U.S. livestock and poultry from disease spread. It’s a modern and streamlined information system that for bucking bull owners and others in the livestock industry, offers reliable identification for their business purposes and for disease control in the event of a disease outbreak. It provides a means to trace movements of animals in commerce, determining which other animals might have been exposed to a disease, while protecting private and confidential business information from disclosure.

Animal identification is not new. Animal identification programs have been used in America for years as a way to help eradicate diseases like brucellosis and bovine tuberculosis. Many producers have identified their animals for other reasons, including management and genetic improvement, marketing and proof of ownership. However, current animal identification efforts typically only address individual objectives, such as specific disease eradication programs, interstate commerce, breed registries and age and source verification.

While it’s not new, NAIS is a modern way to complement existing identification programs and allow animal health officials to rapidly investigate a disease outbreak, across state lines if necessary and trace a suspect animal to its source. Disease tracebacks today may take three weeks or three months. Sometimes the source of the disease is left undetermined. The ultimate goal of NAIS is a 48-hour traceback capability. Comprehensive, state-of-the-art solutions are needed to get there, and NAIS can help. Rapid response minimizes the potential spread of a contagious disease and the economic harm that can result.

The first step to participate in NAIS is obtaining a premises identification number (PIN) for the farm/ranch location where your animals are raised. Premises numbers are obtained at no charge from your State Animal Health Official (State Veterinarian’s office). After a PIN is assigned to the location of your stock, you can participate in animal identification and choose the ID tags of your preference. These “official” tags provide for individual identification of livestock through a 15-digit Animal Identification Number (AIN) beginning with the U.S. country code (840). AIN tags for cattle may be visual-only eartags or eartags with radio frequency identification (RFID) technology. Through the use of RFID “840” tags, the animal’s AIN can be recorded with a handheld reader more easily and accurately than recording official identification numbers manually. The recording of the AIN is critical as livestock move from one premises to another, including the movement of bulls from one rodeo event to another. This information provides animal health officials with the information they need to respond quickly to an animal disease event.

The use of RFID tags has been practiced in beef and dairy operations for management and marketing purposes for several years. Their use in disease programs supports standard identification methods to ensure compatibility for multiple purposes including:

• Marketing alliances
• Source and age verification programs
• Breed registries
• Performance recording
  
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