LAWMAKER CALLS FOR NEW USDA APPROACH ON ANIMAL ID
04.14.08 Enviar esta notaChristopher Doering
US regulators trying to develop a livestock tracking system to guard against mad-cow disease and other illnesses have spent too much time and money on the effort while making too little progress, a key lawmaker complained
WASHINGTON, US; April 14, 2008.- Rep. Rosa DeLauro, chair of a House Appropriations subcommittee that oversees the US Agriculture Department, said she was growing more “frustrated” by the department’s efforts on the livestock-tracking system, which is years behind schedule.
DeLauro, a Connecticut Democrat, said she has not determined whether to fund USDA’s 2009 budget request for animal ID. Nearly $130 million in federal money already has been spent, and the Bush administration has proposed another $24 million in its fiscal 2009 budget.
“If we do proceed with funding…we will require a high degree of accountability from USDA,” said DeLauro, adding that “to have a credible and effective national ID system we have to change the department’s approach.”
The national animal identification program was designed to track the home farm and herdmates of sick animals within 48 hours of an animal disease outbreak. Farmers are not obliged to participate in the program, embraced by USDA after discovery of the first US case of mad cow disease in 2003.
“Animal ID is and will continue to be one of USDA’s top priorities,” Bruce Knight, USDA’s undersecretary for marketing and regulatory programs, told the subcommittee.
So far the USDA has registered 457,000 so-called premises out of the country’s 1.4 million facilities USDA wants to participate in the tracking program. Premise registration is a record of basic information including addresses and telephone numbers.
Knight said USDA already has achieved its goal of 48-hour traceability for poultry, is almost there with swine and plans to do sheep in the next year or so. After that, the focus will be predominately on beef and dairy cattle.
Knight defended USDA’s work on animal ID that he said is “making significant progress.” Much of the money spent so far has been hard to “quantify” because it was used to build databases and overhaul computer programs so disease eradication systems could talk to each other.
A study to determine the cost of the animal ID program could be completed as early as this summer, he added.
(Reuters)
Enlaces Relacionados
