USDA Extends Comment Period on APHIS's Traceability Regulations Proposal

The comment period on a proposal to amend the animal disease traceability regulations and require electronic identification for interstate movement of certain cattle and bison has been extended 30 days, the USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) announced late last week. According to the release, the proposal, originally announced Jan. 18 of this year, will “strengthen animal disease traceability regulations” and will require official eartags to be visually and electronically readable for interstate movement of certain cattle and bison, as well as revise and clarify record requirements, including the requirement of official identification device distribution records to be entered into Tribal, State and Federal database and be made available to APHIS upon request.Additionally, changes have been made to a prior APHIS plan, with the agency now using the term electronic identification (EID) tags instead of radio frequency identification (RFID) tags. APHIS said that is to accommodate the potential for future technologies other than RFID relative to the tags.Ethan Lane, vice president of government affairs at the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA), said the proposed system is a nod to ever-evolving technology and will be a “better” tool than RFIDs.Read More: USDA Proposes Amendments to APHIS's Traceability RegulationsThe EID system is aimed at helping the U.S. cattle industry deal with the emergency response to animal disease events, with APHIS concluding that while foot and mouth disease (FMD) and other diseases have been largely excluded from the U.S., “exclusion of every high impact disease through every pathway of introduction is likely an unachievable task.”APHIS is asking the public to provide comments on how the proposed rule would impact the regulated community and how APHIS might assist with implementing the changes. All comments must be received by Apr. 19. Visit the Regulations website to submit a comment or view the proposed rule.