Groups launch national cattle disease traceability program
A group of state organizations is joining forces to create a national disease traceability program for cattle.
State cattlemen’s organizations from major beef producing regions are partnering to launch U.S. CattleTrace, an initiative that builds on the existing CattleTrace program led by the Kansas Livestock Association and other organizations in the Midwest and western United States. Stakeholders from Texas and Florida are joining those in Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, Kentucky, Oregon and Washington.
The groups want to develop a national infrastructure for disease traceability and encourage members of private industry to use that system.
Volunteer leaders from each of the partner organizations agreed to a set of guiding principles, including:
- They support electronic identification and electronic transfer of traceability data.
- They agree that the national traceability system should complement current U.S. Department of Agriculture regulations.
- The goal of the program is to build a system that is recognized as nationally significant to all domestic and foreign markets.
- Participants want the program to be equitable to all industry segments, industry-driven and managed by a producer board of directors to ensure data privacy and protection.
- U.S. CattleTrace supports the use of one technology in a national traceability system. Since multiple radio frequency identification (RFID) technologies are in use today, the organization will accept data in a standardized electronic format from available technologies but supports a transition to ultra-high frequency technology by the end of 2023.
“With producers and industry stakeholders working together from across the country, the U.S. CattleTrace partnership will be a catalyst to build upon the CattleTrace foundation we established the past few years,” said Brandon Depenbusch, chair of the CattleTrace board of directors. “We encourage other state organizations and individual producers to join our efforts in building a nationally significant animal disease traceability system for the United States. By working together, we will build something that works for the industry.”