|
>
Department >
Home >
Beef
>
Beef/Cattle
>
Livestock ID
Beef/Cattle Extension Program
National Animal Identification System
Information about USDA's NAIS system and how
it affects the Montana beef producer.
The National Animal Identification System
(NAIS) has been designed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture
(USDA) with the input and involvement of the animal
agriculture industry to identify and track livestock
in the U.S. for the purposes of detecting, containing,
and eradicating animal diseases. The NAIS has three
components.
-
Premises Registration –
National registration of all locations that house
livestock. The Premises Identification Number (PIN)
is a seven digit alphanumeric number and will be
one data element collected on each animal at each
premises and stored in a federal database.
-
Animal Identification
– Each animal will be tagged with an official
15-digit Animal Identification Number (AIN) before
leaving the location of origin. The cattle and sheep
industries are seriously considering the utilization
of radio frequency identification (RFID) technology
for this purpose.
-
Animal Movement Tracking
– The AIN of each livestock animal will be
recorded at each premises it resides at during its
lifetime. The PIN, AIN, date, and reason for collecting
the data will be stored in a national database for
potential access by animal health officials in order
to detect, track, contain and eradicate animal diseases.
NAIS is currently a voluntary
program. In May 2005, USDA proposed a timeline to
implement NAIS and transition the system from a voluntary
to a mandatory program. Premises registration and
animal identification would be mandatory by January
2008. Recording and reporting animal movements would
be mandatory by January 2009.
Costs to producers for involvement in
NAIS at this point will be the cost of the identification
tag they choose to use. Efforts are underway to exclude
data in the federal databases from Freedom of Information
Act (FOIA) requests.
|
