United States Animal Identification Plan
Encyclopedia
United States Animal Identification Plan (USAIP) — Officials from approximately 70 animal industry organizations and government agencies have been working since early 2002 on a plan for a national system to identify that might follow food animals from birth to slaughter. The primary purpose is to trace animals back from slaughter through all premises within 48 hours of an animal disease outbreak, in order to determine the disease’s origin and to contain it quickly. The plan calls for recording the movement of individual animals or groups of animals in a central database or in a seamlessly linked database infrastructure.

USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service
Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service
Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service is an agency of the United States Department of Agriculture responsible for protecting animal health, animal welfare, and plant health. APHIS is the lead agency for collaboration with other agencies to protect U.S. agriculture from invasive pests and...

 (APHIS) is to coordinate animal ID activities in cooperation with state animal health authorities and producers for disease tracking purposes. Congressional interest in animal ID intensified after a cow with bovine spongiform encephalopathy
Bovine spongiform encephalopathy
Bovine spongiform encephalopathy , commonly known as mad-cow disease, is a fatal neurodegenerative disease in cattle that causes a spongy degeneration in the brain and spinal cord. BSE has a long incubation period, about 30 months to 8 years, usually affecting adult cattle at a peak age onset of...

 (BSE) was discovered in the United States in December 2003. USDA in 2004 accelerated work on animal ID, and is incorporating major elements of the USAIP into what it has termed the National Animal Identification System
National Animal Identification System
The National Animal Identification System, is a government-run program in the United States intended to extend government animal health surveillance by identifying and tracking specific animals...

(NAIS). Among the issues in establishing a national program are privacy of producer records, implementation cost and who should pay, and whether animal ID should be mandatory or voluntary.
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