New Animal Disease Traceability Program for Washington

The Washington livestock industry is pleased that $881,000 was included in Washington State’s capital budget for the Department of Agriculture to finalize the development and roll-out of a new animal disease traceability which will include a upgrading the brand program to a electronic base system.

Washington Cattlemen’s Association Executive Vice President Jack Field says this will be in the form of a new robust and searchable database

Field: “We’ll be able to provide great service and benefits to the industry whether it is electronic health certificates, import permits, being able to integrate vaccinations charts electronically. Having all the information that we currently rely upon in paper form to have that available to our animal officials in an electronic basis -- we are very happy the funding was secured.”

This is something that the livestock industry has worked hard to secure for a long time. Field says this is a positive

Field: “We’re going to see great things over the next two years from the department and this technology. This is investment is an outstanding step forward and really shows our state’s commitment to the health and well-being our state’s livestock industry as well as the overall health and well-being of the state’s economy as you take a when you look at the benefit and ripple we have from a robust beef and dairy industry throughout. So very exciting times as we look forward.”