Information on the National Animal Identification System

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You might not have heard of it yet, but it is an issue that could potentially have a huge impact on how you raise your chickens. The NAIS (National Animal Identification System) is a program run by the US government. It's goal is to improve animal health surveillance by identifying and tracking specific animals. This could, theoretically, help protect us from biosecurity threats such as rabies or avian influenza (the much-talked about "bird flu"). It is administered by the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, a branch of the US Department of Agriculture, the NAIS will also be overseen by your state's animal health boards.

The goal of this article is help educate you on this subject and provide differing points of view. We also advise that you join the discussion about this on our poultry message boards.

More info on the National Animal Identification System below this ad:

1 Overview
2 Benefits
3 Concerns
4 External Links

Overview

The National Animal Identification System (NAIS) will affect nearly all livestock species, including your chickens! Besides poultry, the NAIS will include cattle, horses, sheep, pigs, certain fish species, and other farm animals.

Locations where these animals are raised, such as your coop and backyard, will need to be identified under the NAIS. Also, the animals themselves will be identified and tracked whenever they are moved (such as when you travel across the state to a poultry show, or sell them to a breeder).

The goal of the NAIS is to be able to traceback to the animal within 48 hours of a diseased animal's movements. This traceback would help animal health officials identify all the animals and locations that have had direct contact with the animal. In situations like the bird flu, this could be crucial in stopping its spread.

Premises Identification

All information regarding the premises of your farming area will be entered into a national database, along with a unique, 7-character premise identification number. Required information will include: the assigned ID number, the name of the premise, the name of its owner, its location (including your street address), a contact phone number, the type of operation it is (example: chicken breeding, aquaculture, etc), and when you received your ID number.

According to the current NAIS plans, all this will become mandatory starting on the first day of 2008.

Animal Identification

This portion of the NAIS will require that each individual animal be given a unique, 15-character ID, or, in the case of animals that remain together in groups, a unique, 13-character group identification number.

No one is quite sure on what sort of technology to use in these IDs. Radio frequency identification (RFIDs), such as that found in microchips, retinal scanning, and DNA samples are among the probable possibilities.

Animal Tracking

On January 1, 2008 it will be mandatory that a report be filed each time one of a set of events occurs, such as a chicken's ownership or when you sell your ducks to a breeder. A report would include the animal's identification number, the premise ID number where the event took place, the date the event took place, and the type of event.

This third part is not planned to become mandatory until January 1, 2009.

Benefits

NAIS will benefit producers, especially large producers, by allowing improved control of a disease outbreak. It could also increase other nations' confidence in the safety of the US's animal products and open new marketing opportunities for producers.

Concerns

Some of the concerns with NAIS include financial and (obvious) privacy rights.

Financially, a system as huge as the NAIS will be extremely costly, and there are some critics who say that it won't be any more effective at controlling disease outbreaks than the current, and less expensive, systems in place.

Also, there is concern that the costs of complying with the program will drive small farmers out of business.

There are also obvious civil rights concerns because the NAIS establishes far-reaching government control over your livestock