What are the pros and cons of the National Animal Identification System NAIS?

The pros of the NAIS are that exporters can say to their customers that we are BSE or FMD or some other disease free. It doesnt mean we are but they can say that. APHIS can track an animal from birth to death if it turns up with a disease. The cons are that the program is expensive for both small farmers and the taxpayer. Over 33 million dollars have already been spent on this program and it has registered only 12 percent of farms. The tagging and tracking have not even been implemented so you can do the math with over 2 million sites to be registered. As the number of animals you have goes down the cost per head goes up. In Australia the average cost is $37 per head and the countries importing Australian cattle are still asking for testing. Another issue is the reporting of movement. All instances where an animal comes in contact with animals from another site must be reported within 24 hours. THat means you must call or email the USDA or its designee at the end of each day and report births, deaths, sales, purchases, trips to the vet, trail rides, shows, 4H events, escapes if the animals come in contact with someone elses herd, off site breeding. While USDA says this program is voluntary they have also said that if "enough" people do not sign up by 2009 they will make it mandatory. The penalties in other states range from $1000 to $5000 per incident for non-compliance. Sound voluntary to you? Last the USDA's only response to a disease outbreak is to kill everything within 10km of an outbreak on a "presumptive diagnosis". This means you will have veterinarians who may or may not have had more than one rotation of exotic diseases looking at your animals and making a diagnosis without testing. Field tests are available but the USDA does not plan on using them. FMD which is preventable and treatable is on the list. So is CAE also preventable and manageable. If your neighbor goes to the sale barn and buys a sick kid your whole herd could be destroyed for a manageable outbreak. Remember UK in 2001? THis program is unconstitutional and has no law passed in congress to back it up. Bills are being presented at this moment which will make it mandatory and make electronic tagging and chipping mandatory. WRite or call your congressmen and protest loudly. Australia is having a terrible time with this system and is asking for impact studies. NAIS is bad business. For mor information go to www.nonais.org www.libertyark.net www.stopanimalid.org Read the Draft Standards and Strategic Plan for yourself then read the Guide to NAIS for Small Producers. THey contradict each other and the plans are in the Federal Register not the Guide. Read GAO 02-214 for the USDa repsonse to outbreaks. There is a lot of information out there educate yourselves.