Texas ranked among the top states having the most registered premises as part of the National Animal Identification System in early September.
The Lone Star state has an estimated 187,118 premises (the most among the 50 states) and some 29,266 were registered (15.6 percent) during the early part of September, ranking it third behind Indiana.
Wisconsin, with its dairy-heavy industry, ranked first with some 58,894 premises registered.
There is a disclaimer in the rankings. Obviously, some smaller states have fewer premises to register, but there are livestock farms with more than one species. The U.S. Department of Agriculture-National Agricultural Statistics Service estimates 1.4 million livestock farms in the U.S. with more than $1,000 in annual income in establishing its ranking statistics.
Missouri (79,018), Oklahoma (71,420), Tennessee (68,010) and Kentucky (61,251) round out the top five states having the most estimated number of premises as part of the national identification system.
All the statistics and related information is available online through the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Web site at http://animalid.aphis.usda.gov/nais/index.shtml.
At the 2007 ID Info Expo in Kansas City recently, Bruce Knight, USDA under secretary for marketing and regulatory programs, headlined his speech by covering how much animal diseases have cost producers across the nation and the importance of a surveillance system using cutting-edge technology.
"I want to remind you once again just of the cost of national diseases to the American farmer and rancher," he said. "Since 2002, USDA has invested $130 million in bovine TB eradication and depopulation efforts. Think about the loss to the genetic pool."
He said 790,000 cows have been tested and more than 25,000 animals have been destroyed to prevent the spread of bovine tuberculosis in the U.S.
"When you think about business interruption, this is a tremendous cost," he said.
Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (mad cow disease) in beef cattle and Exotic New Castle disease in poultry are two other diseases that have resulted in financial hardship on producers and federal agriculture officials, Knight said.
"(This demonstrates) clearly we need a robust, vigorous system that can move quickly," he said. "The ultimate goal is 48-hour traceability. Comprehensive state-of-the- art solutions are needed to get us there. NAIS (National Animal Identification System) is well on its way to doing that."
Tech Trough Bytes
Digital Angel Corp., which makes an equine radio frequency responder to use as part of the National Animal Identification System, has had its LifeChip RFID injectable transponder approved by USDA.
The microchip, about the size of a grain of rice, contains a passive transponder that's programmed with a 15-digit number that can be read by an ISO compliant reader. For more information visit www.DigitalAngelCorp.com.
• Blair Fannin reports on technology in agriculture. Email Fannin at agtechreporter@gmail.com.
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