United States Department of Agriculture's (USDA) National Animal Identification System (NAIS) has completed testing projects for creation of the system in real-world scenarios, integrating animal identification and movement reporting into everyday commerce. The results provide valuable information about the day-to-day use of animal identification and tracing technology, the Department says.

“The pilot projects demonstrate that NAIS will work well and greatly benefit America's [animal] producers. These concrete examples of the system's capabilities, tried and proven in the field, are a critical step forward in our efforts to implement this important program,” said Bruce Knight, undersecretary of USDA's marketing and regulatory programs mission area.

Key lessons learned from the projects include:

The retention rate of radio frequency identification (RFID) tags is much higher than anticipated. Project participants (one with 6,000 tagged animals) reported a retention rate of nearly 100 percent with the button-like RFID eartags.

Existing animal health and marketing programs can be an effective, producer- friendly means of collecting data for NAIS. The projects show specific examples (such as Pennsylvania's Dairy Herd Improvement program) of programs already in place that integrate well with NAIS–allowing producers to participate in the system with minimal time, effort or added expense on their part.

Workable options are available for producers who want to identify their animals electronically without investing in reader equipment. Producers were able to eliminate the need for expensive equipment by using group/lot visual tags for day-to-day management purposes and then matching the tags with individual RFID tag numbers when animals moved off the premises.

The use of electronic identification allows for more accurate and efficient recordkeeping. Project participants reported that using RFID technology significantly reduced data entry errors, enhanced business practices and decreased labor costs.

The use of RFID at auction markets can improve animal welfare and human safety. Using RFID technology reduced the need to restrain animals when recording their identification numbers.

Identification used for NAIS can support other programs, including value- added opportunities. In several projects, individually identified animals yielded monetary premiums at auction sales.

USDA provided approximately $6.6 million in Commodity Credit Corporation funds for the projects in 2004. These initial 16 projects represent the first stage of the NAIS pilot project program. The program supports the states and tribes in carrying out research and field trials that resolve questions and concerns about NAIS processes, technologies and costs.

Several additional field trial projects, funded with fiscal year 2005 monies, are now underway to provide more statistical comparisons of technologies and more clearly define implementation costs for NAIS.

The sheep industry could very well be the first meat sector to obtain industry- wide, 48-hour traceability," said Bruce Knight, under secretary for the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Marketing and Regulatory Programs to the more than 50 U.S. sheep producers who met with representatives from a number of departments within USDA in April 2007, the National Sheep Industry Association reports.

Knight stressed that common-sense solutions are going to be the resolution to producers voluntarily registering their premises. In fact, through a close working relationship between the American Sheep Industry Association (ASI) and the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), there is no reason why a common-sense approach can't be found to join together the scrapie flock identification number with the National Animal Identification System (NAIS) premises identification number. ASI has specific policy stating that the NAIS must recognize the scrapie identification system numbers.

“I am very committed to making this happen," Knight said.

He assured the producers that he is committed to making sure that the sheep industry is given the same opportunities as beef has been given to get lamb back into the Japanese markets.

More information on the findings from the 2004 pilot projects, as well as a description of current efforts, is available in the Pilot Project Report. The report can be accessed on USDA's NAIS Web site at www.usda.gov/nais .