DES MOINES, Iowa — New rules for tracing diseased livestock will lead to greater compliance and improve the country’s ability to market its livestock products overseas, U.S Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack said Tuesday.
He said the proposed system to improve the tracking of livestock would apply only to the movement of livestock across state borders and would require animals to be accompanied by an interstate certificate of veterinary inspection or other documentation, like brand certificates or owner-shipper statements.
The announcement came 18 months after the U.S. Department of Agriculture abandoned a program intended to trace the movement of farm animals across the country and said it would begin work on plans for a more flexible program to be administered by the states and tribal nations. A voluntary program implemented in 2004 to pinpoint an animal’s location within 48 hours after a disease outbreak was poorly received.
That should change under the proposed rules, Vilsack said.
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