The American Sheep Industry Association (ASI) posted formal comments this week to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Animal Disease Traceability proposed rule.
The comments, signed by ASI President Margaret Soulen Hinson, state, "ASI has long supported the concept of a national animal disease traceability program and appreciates USDA's efforts to seek advice and ideas from stakeholders prior to publishing this proposed regulation. U.S. sheep producers, in partnership with state and federal regulatory authorities and allied industry groups, implemented an identification (ID) and traceability system as a key component of the National Scrapie Eradication Program over 10 years ago."
The comments further state, "We also believe that it will be important to design traceability performance standards within a reasonable period of time. In our experience as stakeholders in the scrapie ID program, performance standards are important to producers and state regulators in order for them to know what is expected of them for uniform compliance."