|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| BOAH dismisses any major changes in NAIS for Indiana |
|
|
|
BILLINGS, Mont. — A not-for-profit cattlemen’s organization better known as R-CALF USA (Ranchers-Cattlemen Action Legal Fund United Stockgrowers of America) recently announced a small victory against the USDA’s Animal and Plant Inspection Service well-publicized National Animal ID program.
The Dec. 22 victory included APHIS’s Veterinary Service division retracting a memo (No. 575.19) issued on Sept. 22 that mandated pre-mises registration under the National Animal Identifica-tion System (NAIS) for producers enga-ged in interstate commerce and who participate in any one of the dozen or more federally regulated disease programs.
According to the National Beef Cattlemen’s Assoc. representative, “this is a non-issue. This is just confusion on their part regarding premise ID requirements for interstate commerce.”
The announcement comes just one month after R-CALF USA demanded for the retraction claiming that NAIS’ memo “constitutes an unlawful, final regulatory action initiated and implemented without public notice or opportunity for comment, as required by the Admini-strative Procedure Act.
“We caught USDA in the unlawful act of trying to convert what was promised to be a completely voluntary animal identification system into a mandatory NAIS, and the agency backed down,” said R-CALF USA President/Region VI Director Max Thornsberry, a Missouri veterinarian who also chairs the group’s animal health committee. “This goes to show how an organized group of cattle producers can effectively defend their rights if they stand and fight together.”
The cancellation memorandum issued by APHIS on Dec. 22, 2008, stated that “VS Memorandum No. 575.19 dated September 22, 2008, is hereby canceled.”
The new APHIS-VS memo further states that APHIS-VS “has an established procedure for producers who request their premises record be removed from the NAIS premises databases.”
According to Denise Derrer, of the Indiana Board of Animal Health, “from our perspective this does not affect Indiana’s premise ID requirements.
“We are basically talking about the difference between opting out of a federal ID number for a state ID number,” said Derrer, who added that there are no major changes to the program and “premise ID will remain a requirement for Hoosier producers and an essential tool in our disease investigation program.” |
| 1/7/2009 |
|
|
|
|
