Keep Our Food Safe would like to return to the topic of NAIS. You haven’t forgotten about NAIS, have you? We’ve talked about NAIS, or the National Animal Identification System before. It’s a program run by the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service to track the movement of our livestock throughout the country.

As we mentioned before, the identification system serves an important purpose: slowing the spread of animal disease. By enabling a disease to be traced within a 48-hour period, NAIS will dramatically improve the United States’ response capacity to limit the spread of animal diseases. This will provide a safeguard to maintain food security and protecting our food supply by protecting animal health.

The case for NAIS is growing stronger. Recently, APHIS released the results of a cost-benefit analysis on NAIS. APHIS commissioned the study to provide economic information on NAIS to consumers and to estimate the costs and benefits of adopting the program.

The study indicated three compelling reasons for producers to adopt NAIS.

First, we can save money on disease control by being able to identify our livestock because the process will be less costly. The report indicates identification programs can reduce the time it takes to conduct disease testing, a component of our nation’s ongoing disease control and eradication efforts. Quicker, more efficient disease testing can reduce the time it takes to check animals on farms and ranches – a cost-effective way to keep our food supply safe and secure.

Secondly, animal identification systems are fast becoming prerequisites for international trade, and many countries won’t accept imports from countries without animal identification systems. If they don’t implement NAIS, producers and all those involved in exporting livestock could lose more than $1.3 billion annually due to reduced access to international markets. Because exports increase the prices paid to all producers, access to international markets affects all producers, not just those that export.

And finally, NAIS is more effective at higher participation rates, and is more cost effective at higher participation rates. The more producers who participate in NAIS, the more economically effective the program will be and there will be reduced chances of negative effects from a disease outbreak. The report indicates that little to moderate participation in animal identification systems could be a costly decision for producers to make, potentially making them less competitive in domestic and international markets.

Back in March, many officials testified before Congress on the importance of adopting a mandatory animal identification system. Representatives from the veterinary profession and food safety regulatory bodies expressed that adopting a nationwide program to track our livestock is an effective way to reduce disease outbreaks.

Dr. Ron DeHaven, American Veterinary Medical Association CEO, emphasized that NAIS is an excellent way for authorities to quickly respond to disease that may enter our nation’s food supply. By being able to quickly track sick animals, we can save millions of dollars, as well as protect human and animal lives from foodborne illnesses.

Protecting our food supply AND saving money? Sounds to me like these are good reasons to adopt NAIS.

P.S. - USDA is seeking to engage stakeholders and hear their concerns about NAIS and feasible solutions to those concerns. The information and ideas gathered will assist Secretary Vilsack in making decisions about the future direction of animal traceability in the United States. Learn more about giving feedback, including upcoming "Listening Tour" dates.

O.k., this post is a little off-subject from our normal food safety-centric write-ups, but it’s important nonetheless. You’re still with us, right? What we’re writing about today is a food animal tracking system, NAIS. And while it won’t make your food safer, per se, it will provide a safeguard to maintain food security by protecting animal health. This is an important distinction because, when we typically talk food safety, we’re referring to the expectation we all share that each morsel and bite we eat is, well, safe from disease and toxins. The National Animal Identification System (NAIS) focuses instead on ensuring the availability of our animal food supply, and this is something you should definitely care about.

NAIS, a program run by the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, helps track and trace the movement of livestock throughout the country. Basically, NAIS will tag food animals such as cows, and, as a consequence, know where each animal has been moved to or has been.

It may sound silly to monitor farm animals so closely, but the identification system serves an important purpose: fighting animal disease. By enabling a disease to be traced within a 48-hour period, NAIS will dramatically improve the United States’ response capacity to limit the spread of animal diseases.

Why do we say dramatically? Because, according to JAVMA News, “Investigators spent an average of 199 days tracing the sources of animals infected with bovine tuberculosis between October 2005 and August 2007.” So, if you think about it, that is pretty dramatic, isn’t it – decrease the response time from 199 days to 48 hours. Think of the time and effort that can be saved, and the potential for avoiding the spread of illness and disease. And when you save animals from getting sick, you’re not only protecting human health, you’re saving all of us money in the long run.

For example, a disease like foot and mouth disease (FMD) spreads very quickly, and a rapid response is critical to preventing a potential national outbreak that could cost millions of animals’ lives and billions of dollars. Or, if a cow is showing any signs that it may be affected with “mad cow disease” (BSE, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy), NAIS would allow authorities to rapidly identify and locate the offspring of that cow and other cows that may have been exposed to the same feed that was eaten by that cow, preventing them from entering our food system.

NAIS is not yet mandatory, but that hasn’t stopped savvy ranchers and livestock producers from getting on board with the system. By December 2008, almost a third (492,000) of the nation's food animal production facilities were registered. To encourage more farmers and ranchers to register with the system, the USDA has asked veterinarians to talk up the benefits of the system. The USDA has even developed a tool kit to help the vets out. (Veterinarians are also encouraged to register their own premises, including their veterinary hospitals.)

The benefits are obvious and registration is easy. Farmers first sign up for premises identification, a way for authorities to contain disease by locating producers in an area. After that, livestock must be registered individually or in lots and permanently identified (depending on the species).

We hope the remaining two thirds of food animal producers will get on board with NAIS sooner rather than later. Sure, we’ve made significant progress fighting disease in livestock, and sure, there are no major disease epidemics in farm animals at the moment. But why wait for the unforeseen to take action? Forty-eight hours sure sounds a lot better than 199 days to us, and we all want to make sure there’s an adequate food supply available in our country.