Critics said if an individual animal identification system were up and running, the Alabama cow confirmed as the U.S.'s third case of BSE would have been traced all the way back to its birth herd. Alabama and USDA officials said they may never know where the animal came from. The cow had no ear tags, tattoos or brands, and there is no record who sold the animal last year at auction.
Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R, GA), chair of the Senate Agriculture Committee, said a national animal ID program will be part of the 2007 Farm Bill, even though USDA said it does not want to wait for the farm bill process.
USDA has announced the tracking device manufacturing and distribution guidelines that are supposed to move the system closer to reality. While animal ID ear tags appear to be the most commonly used system, USDA will allow supplemental technologies, which will vary among species.
Under the envisioned system designed to pinpoint an animal's lifetime movement within 48 hours of a disease outbreak -- cows would have numbers assigned, as would farms, sale barns and feedlots. In addition, USDA foresees allowing any number of new technologies to be used, including retinal scans, radio frequency tags and DNA markers.