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USDA National Animal ID System (NAIS) premises registration not true traceback system |
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USDA National Animal ID System (NAIS) premises registration not true traceback system according to ScoringAg, a traceback and trace up system for agriculture products, featuring Site-Specific Recordkeeping™ and PIDC location code, and is one of the many divisions of ScoringSystem, Inc., which is located in Sarasota, Florida USA.
While the USDA has increased funding for continued registration of premises for its national animal identification system (NAIS), ScoringAg believes they are failing to address the real job for the program – animal traceback – and how the program can actually work without compromising producer's private data or increasing production costs.
More than 80,000 premises have been registered in the NAIS program to help trace diseased or potentially diseased animals to their point of origin more quickly and efficiently according to the USDA’s Secretary, Johanns. At present, 47 states and five Tribes have approved premises registration systems, and APHIS anticipates that all 50 states will join the program by July, 2005.
Animal health officials currently conduct disease trace outs with local, resident systems that make use of records related to program diseases, on-farm record keeping and existing interstate movement certificates and breed registries. These investigations, however, may take between a few days to a few weeks to complete because the records are often kept on paper or because the lack of standards across state lines and international borders according the ScoringAg.
ScoringAg believes that only a web-based data management system can provide an efficient, effictive data collection, storage, and report system with true animal trace back and trace up. A Web-based system makes it possible for records to move with the individual animal and related byproducts, which cuts the time required for source verification to just seconds.
Effective traceback is only possible when each stage of the food processing and supply system is included. The USDA's NAIS and other similar tracking systems currently in use or in pilot testing are incomplete and ineffective since they only are concerned with the animal's early life history.
All products in the food chain, from the live animal and its origin, to its associated commodity items, must be identified with a unique number and labeled by RFID or barcode and included in the traceback system. All activities and actions performed on the animals must be recorded at each location – and identified by a unique Premises IDentification Code (PIDC) – in a rancher's field, on a cattle truck, or even in the middle of a packing plant, all the way to the retailer and consumer.
ScoringAg's Internet-based recordkeeping system and database can meet the demands of real traceback in real time; provide real compliance with government traceback and Homeland Security and APHIS regulations; give producers and industry stakeholders a real marketing advantage over competitors with PIDC and point-to-point traceback; add proven value with RFID source verification throughout the Web-based recordkeeping system; and guarantee confidentiality with a secure databank that can still deliver Internet-based records anywhere, anytime, in real time – only to the owner of the account.
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 26 July 2005 )
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