07/23/07 NAIS business plan coming soon

USDA says it's going to publish a business plan later this summer as the next step toward a National Animal Identification System. KNIGHT "We're going to map out goals specific to species so that the partners like USAIO, pork producers, FFA can really see how to plan things out , how to break it out by species and by state as we're moving forward on that." That's Agriculture Undersecretary Bruce Knight. He says it's a public document and USDA is seeking comments from a wide variety of sources. KNIGHT "The business partners that are helping, the folks who are building the software, the databases, that are selling the ID systems they need to know and of course, Congress which is vitally important for funding animal ID, they've got a reasonable need to know about where's the money going, what's needed there as well as the importance of it." He says the real litmus test of any system is the ability to identify and locate animals. KNIGHT "We have 400 thousand premises today. We have more premises than Australia, more premises then Canada. The real objective is to achieve 48 hour traceability." Knight says the identification system could help to prevent some of the losses producers suffer when there is a disease problem. He says the recent BSE case was a two billion dollar industry loss. Today's Idaho Ag News Bill Scott