This August, USDA’s Animal and Plant health Inspection Service (APHIS) proposed a new set of rules for animal traceability under which livestock moving interstate would have to be officially identified unless specifically exempted.
According to Dr. Dee Ellis, Texas state veterinarian and executive director of the Texas Animal Health Commission, the new set of proposed rules are USDA’s new effort following the failed attempt a few years ago to develop a national animal disease traceability system, then called NAIS, or National Animal Identification System. Read more…