faq7

At first blush, this would seem to be a worthwhile program, but as they say, too much of a good thing can turn into a bad thing. The problem with the program as proposed, in my opinion. is that it's too unwieldy and top heavy with reporting requirements, especially in regard to small producers. While large producers will only have to identify their animals by lot or group, the small producer or owner of only a few animals will be unduly burdened with fees, time spent in reporting, inspections, etc..

There are already programs in place to track disease in the animal component of the human food chain on both the national and state levels. Agencies such as APHIS - the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, CDC - the Center For Disease Control and Prevention, USDA - United States Department of Agriculture, as well as the different state departments of agriculture and epidemiology already monitor and collect data about animal and human disease outbreaks, both with in the food animal and nonfood animal populations.

One has to ask how much more tracking of animals, even those not in the food chain, is necessary, and what is cost effective to implement. The problem with large programs like NAIS as it currently stands is that it may eliminate any potential disease outbreak by eliminating the very population that the governing agencies are purportedly protecting through over regulation.

Let me propose a theoretical scenario which would provide a solution to a problem that occasionally occurs in the human population and which constant tracking might help to alleviate, but that would be equally difficult and burdensome to implement -

In various parts of the USA, at various times, there are reports of rabies, in a domestic animal, which occasionally results in a human being exposed. We are all familiar enough with rabies to understand just how serious exposure to this virus is, and how important it is to vaccinate our animals against this disease. Infection by the rabies virus generally will result in death if not treated immediately. In some areas the most common vector bringing rabies into contact with humans is the domestic cat, and occurs most commonly in rural areas where cats are very common, are used for rodent control - barn cats - and are quite often not vaccinated against the virus.

While identification and tracking of all cats everywhere in the USA would appear on the surface to be a viable solution, the implementation of such a program would be impossible, and even if possible, it would be overly burdensome on those who would be asked or required to participate in such a program.

Now I understand that this scenario is extreme, but NAIS if implemented as it stands now, would place a similar burden on owners of small numbers of agricultural animals, in addition to duplicating the current disease reporting and tracking systems.

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