After a national listening tour, U.S. Department of Agriculture officials have decided to end the National Animal Identification System. “Some people were in favor of NAIS, but the vast majority of participants were highly critical of the program…It is no secret that there are concerns about and opposition to NAIS,” said Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack.

The USDA created the NAIS in 2005. The main goal of the program was to identify and create a tracking system for all livestock in the United States, in order to prevent the outbreak and spread of contagious diseases.

The program met with wide opposition, especially from the horse community—people were concerned about a national database of premises as well as the paperwork and hassle involved with reporting every movement of horses off the premises. Originally, the NAIS was supposed to be mandatory, but after much protest it became voluntary. The USDA spent more than $120 million on the program, but only 36 percent of producers participated.

The USDA plans to implement a new animal disease traceability framework, but it will leave the power and decision making to state governments. The new program will only apply to animals moving across state lines.

Elaine Lidholm of the Virginia Department of Agriculture said this could lead to problems. “At this point we don’t know how this will work out. Different states may have different requirements. It’s going to be very confusing,” she said.

“We didn’t know this was happening until we saw the press releases. We are concerned whether [states] will be able to create the funding to implement the new program.”

At this point the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service has not approved any guidelines for the states to follow but is planning to by fall 2010.