Arkansas NAIS

COOPERATIVE AGREEMENT 10-9705-2011- CA Funding $150,000

Federal $125,000; matching State $25,000

The purpose of this Agreement is to provide Federal financial assistance to conduct education, outreach, and premises registration activities that will provide specific information to the Cooperator, APHIS and other interested parties for the animal disease traceability program.

Arkansas Work Plan Objectives & Need for the Assistance

Enhance Arkansas’s Voluntary Premises Identification System

Promote voluntary participation in the QSA while requiring premises ID & compliant tags
Continue to micro-chop equine through the use of field livestock inspection staff
The Commission plans to initiate a preconditioned cattle program with premises ID & compliant tags.
Will test all eligible cattle at auction markets with cattle being tagged as well as vaccinating calves on the farm & at markets. Movement of these animal interstate is further documented through the use of tags that will be document on health certificates.
Arkansas regulations for Brucellosis also require change of ownership testing and tagging cattle sold at private treaty or special sales which provide excellent traceability for movement within the state and interstate.
Sheep and goats marketed in Arkansas require the use of Scrapie tags, which provide excellent traceability data intrastate and interstate movement. (same for exhibitions)
Swine marketed in Arkansas must be identified with an official premises ID by official an ear tag, which provides excellent traceability both intrastate and interstate.
Poultry sold at swap meets and flea markets are required to have a negative Pullorum-Typhoid with proper documentations and identification on NPIP VS Form 9-2 or 9-3, which must accompany poultry moving interstate.
Financial assistance remains critical in our efforts to register all premises and enhance animal disease traceability both intra and interstate.
State coordinator will supervise our 30-member livestock inspection staff to ensure all facets of the plan are carried out, including work site visitations. Progress reports will be provided to agency director, deputy director on a routine basis. and advisory committee.
Extensive outreach presentations will continue throughout the state. The state will continue to contact individual producers about the value of an effective traceability program and premises registration and traceability enhancements.
Educational seminars with the accredited veterinarians of Arkansas with in conjunction with the AVIC and Federal VMO’s of Arkansas. The accredited veterinarians will have to become familiar with disease traceability methods and procedures associated with intra and interstate movements.

1. “840” tags

2. Animal ID Number Management System (AINMS)

3. AIN’s distributed by the State for disease programs

4. AIN’s distributed by the accredited veterinarians

5. AIN’s in data capture systems

The accredited veterinarians will become familiar with the PIN assignment process in the cases where a PIN is required but the producer does not whish to participate in the Commission’s traceability program.
The accredited veterinarian will have to become familiar with the administration of “Scope” and how to obtain non-producer participate number (NPN) and the responsibilities of that role.
The veterinary seminars will be held in conjunction with other state association veterinary meetings and also regional meetings.

TRACEABILITY SYSTEM VISION

Expanding the Brucellosis Program through testing and individual tagging of livestock at all livestock in all programs such as the Scapie Program for sheep & goats; swine marketed requiring official ear tags, QSA & soon Preconditioned Calf Program requiring tags and poultry sold at swap meets and flea markets with proper ID. The equine will be covered as we continue to microchip more horses. Our plan and vision is to maintain and grow all programs to provide critical data for traceability purposes.

CURRENT TRACING CAPABILITIES

The strength of our ability to effectively initiate and complete successful tracing lies in highly trained state and federal employees who have experience in rapidly assembling data on birth locations and movement within and out of the state. The Commission works in concert with officials from other states to gather necessary information and have employees assigned to quickly trace, locate, and take appropriate actions to quarantine, track, and test animals of concern. The traces that are done in Arkansas at the present time are done through the generic database (GDB) by USDA, Veterinary Services in Arkansas. Veterinary Services was able to trace a bull this week in the hed of origin in 2-3 days. VS employees are usually able to find a tag number in the database in a reasonable amount of time. We file health certificates as they come in by the state of origin and by year. We are able to find most health certificates within a reasonable amount of time, but because it is a paper system it is cumbersome. When we supply tags (pass tags or brucellosis tags) to the veterinarians in Arkansas or to our livestock inspectors, we tie those tags to the recipient. The same is true for other forms (EIA test charts, vaccination, and certificates of veterinary inspection (CVI’s).

HOW ACCOMPLISHMENTS WILL BE ACHIEVED

Producer organizations: Arkansas Cattlemen’s Association, Arkansas Farm Bureau, Arkansas Pork Producer’s Association, sheep and goat organizations, and the fair industry.
University of Arkansas Cooperative Extension Service
Auction markets, food stores, accredited veterans, veterinary clinics, agricultural supply stores and others.