12/11/06 Study on ID and disease traceback

American Rancher December 11, 2006 A cooperative study done by USDA and Kansas State University shows the value of increased degrees of animal traceability during a contagious animal disease outbreak. Ted Schroeder, an agricultural economist at KSU says the study looked at the potential impact of a foot and mouth outbreak in southwest Kansas. Dustin Pendell, now at Colorado State University was a study co-author. Pendell: "As we increased our animal identification level or depth, had ore intensive tracing, what we found was the number of animals being destroyed decreased, which in result lowered the costs associated with an FMD outbreak such as eradications, disposal of carcasses, quarantine costs, etc." Schroeder agrees. Schroeder: "As you increase the ability to trace animals, increase the ability to arrest, identify and quickly contain the disease, you therefore reduce its spread. You therefore are able to regionalize it. And so by having more intense animal identification you can essentially shrink the probability and the duration of a likely disease." Pendell hopes the study will show producers the practical benefits of registering their premises and possibly entering their livestock data into an animal movement database. I'm Bob Hoff.