Program urges premise ID to help fight spread of livestock disease
Program urges premise ID to help fight spread of livestock disease
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By Jim Stafford
Published: July 27, 2007
MIDWEST CITY — Oklahoma's livestock producers have been urged to register their premises as part of a new, voluntary, animal disease traceback program called "Locate in 48” launched Thursday by the state Agriculture, Food and Forestry Department and an industry advisory committee.
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Voluntary nature stressed
The cost to agriculture of battling animal disease outbreaks, such as mad cow disease, has been put at $1 million "per minute,” Brewer said.
She was joined in introducing the Locate in 48 program by Terry Peach, state secretary of agriculture, and Scott Dewald, executive vice president of the Cattlemen's Association.
Each emphasized the voluntary nature of the program, which is part of a nationwide effort funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
However, the database that will be built from producer information can be accessed only by state officials and only in times of emergency or disease outbreak, Peach said.
"The question that everyone keeps asking me — Is this a mandatory program?” Peach said. "Locate in 48 is not a mandatory program. It is totally voluntary. You do not have to tell us all the livestock that you have, you do not have to tell us everything in your ranching or farming operations.
"All we need is your name and address, your headquarters operations and what species you have in your operations.”
Registration rate forecast
Only about 10 percent of Oklahoma's 80,000 livestock premises have been registered with the state Agriculture Department to date, Peach said.
Officials hope that the Locate in 48 program will encourage 50 percent of livestock producers to register within a year and 90 percent within two years, he said.
The advisory committee that helped create Oklahoma's Locate in 48 program comprised virtually every livestock and farm-related organization in the state. The group was introduced en masse at the news conference.
Dewald called it a "wonderful” public-private partnership that seeks to protect large livestock segments such as the cattle industry, which he cited as a $2 billion industry in Oklahoma.
"There are two ways of doing things, I suppose,” Dewald said. "One is the regulatory method and the big hammer, and the other is to bring industry and government together and seek solutions. If we can take care of this in a voluntary fashion, then the likelihood of it becoming mandatory becomes very slim.”
Objection voiced
However, agriculture officials acknowledge that many producers have a healthy fear of intrusion by Big Brother, which must be overcome to make the program a success. Brewer said that no livestock producers will be held liable for animal disease nor is there any cost to participate.
But that still won't stem questions about the government implementing an animal ID program as the next step.
"The reality is that it is a three-step program,” Brewer said. "If we never have an individual animal ID program, it will be a shame and hurt our ability to protect animal health in Oklahoma. But if we never do and all we have is premise ID, that will help us.”
Fear factor dispelled
Misunderstandings about the premise ID program will be overcome when producers learn about its purpose and how it will be administered, said Terry Detrick, vice president of the Oklahoma Farmers Union and a member of the advisory committee.
"They are not nearly as afraid of it when they fully understand it,” Detrick said. "When people are reading a lot of things into it that there are not, there's a fear factor.”
The Oklahoma Cattlemen's Association meeting continues through Saturday at the Reed Center.
Related Topics:
Domestic Policy, Political Policy, Politics, Agriculture Policy, Veterinary Medicine, Animal Diseases
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Who wants to buy a horse or any other farm animal and have to file reports everywhere you take it? Who wants to give up true title to their land by registering their premises? Who wants to pay more to microchip a chicken than it originally cost to buy? Who wants to face depopulation of an entire 140 sq. mile area should disease be suspected?
The USDA claims those who are against NAIS are spreading misinformation. How is it misinformation to tell someone what NAIS will require, the registering premises, microchipping, reporting and depopulation. While they claim it is voluntary, the USDA is bribing states to make it mandatory or requiring 4Hers to have a premise number in order to show their animals. How is that voluntary?
Free to sign up? Sure, the drug dealer always gives the first hit free. The real costs come later on, with chipping our animals and chipping away our freedoms and time.
If NAIS is such a great program, why are there so many anti-NAIS websites popping up with lawyers (and others) showing how NAIS will not be a good thing simply by reading the NAIS document? The GAO is currently running an investigation into all the problems in NAIS, even though they missed the most obvious one, like the fact the majority of the American livestock owners, who, when they find out about NAIS, overwhelmingly DO NOT want it!
p.s. the USDA said they wanted our input. We did and they came out with a booklet on how to handle those against NAIS! How d’ya like them apples?