Now that USDA is scrapping the National Animal Identification System, the National Institute for Animal Agriculture will devote part of its annual meeting March 15-17 in Kansas City, Mo., to helping develop a new identification system. The NIAA Animal Identification and Information Systems Committee will convene a panel of animal agriculture representatives to discuss what this new approach will mean to their sector of the industry and to offer input to state and tribal decisions.
Under the new USDA plan, states and tribal nations will set their own programs and standards. Those groups will confer at a two-day forum in Kansas City March 18-19 to discuss ways to achieve the flexible, coordinated approach to animal disease traceability USDA envisions.
NIAA board chairman Leonard Bull, says that NIAA has been very involved in convening such panels and conferences over the past two decades in order to assist in developing consensus across animal agriculture on animal identification issues. This is yet another opportunity for NIAA to provide the needed forum for animal agriculture to proactively work toward a positive solution to a very difficult and contentious issue.
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