Cattle Disease Traceability is a Top Priority

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The U.S. CattleTrace Initiative, established as a private, not-for-profit corporation in August 2018, is a disease traceability program with the goal of developing a national infrastructure for disease traceability and encouraging private industry to use it for individualized management practices. In January 2020, the CattleTrace board voted to formally change the name of the organization to U.S. CattleTrace, Inc. As the program expands and additional partners join the industry-led effort, the structure of U.S. CattleTrace will evolve to fit the needs of the program and be representative of the U.S. cattle industry. [Information was received from conversations with Matt Teagarden, CEO Kansas Livestock Association and Cassie Kniebel, Program Manager, U.S. CattleTrace by Dennis McLaughlin, McLaughlin Writers LLC, January 2020.]

Cattle Disease Traceability is a Top Priority

Animal disease traceability is not a novel idea in the U.S. Agreement on a need for a system to track and locate cattle susceptible or exposed to disease, is close to unanimous. And it’s been on the books – that is to say, in The Federal Register – since 2013, as a federal rule, Traceability For Livestock Moved Interstate rule (TLMI). TLMI established minimum national official identification and documentation requirements tracing and locating livestock moving interstate. Producers of dairy cattle and sexually intact beef cattle over the age of 18 months complied with the rule. 

But TLMI did not get much traction from the feeder-cattle sector of the of the U.S. cattle industry until 2018, when several state cattlemen’s organizations from major beef producing regions formed the CattleTrace Initiative. The goal was to develop a national infrastructure for disease traceability and to encourage private industry’s use of the infrastructure for individualized management practices.

Today, the U.S. cattle industry readily endorses a national end-to-end cattle disease traceability system, which provides critical tools to manage a disease outbreak and may provide opportunities to add value to the industry. Traceability would not be a value-added marketing measure per se at this point. “It would be more of a support system focused on disease traceability,” says Cassie Kniebel, program manager for Manhattan, Kansas-based U.S. CattleTrace, Inc. But the infrastructure could eventually lead to real valued-added components, she hints.

Need Is Real

At the recent Agricultural Business Council of Kansas City Ag Innovation Forum, Matt Teagarden, CEO, Kansas Livestock Association, stressed the benefits of end-to-end cattle disease traceability. He said it provides critical tools to manage a disease outbreak, and it could provide opportunities to add value to the industry. “A cattle disease traceability system is like a life insurance policy,” he said. “You want to have it, but would prefer not to use it. Using the disease traceability infrastructure to support inventory or animal health management systems could provide significant value to cattle producers.”

In an increasingly competitive global marketplace, national beef industry animal identification and traceability systems are the norm. And they could become a requirement for exporting beef around the world. But among the top 12 global beef exporters, according to World Perspectives, Inc. (WPI), the U.S. and India are the only countries without a nationally instituted traceability system in place. For the record, those dozen countries account for 95 percent global beef exports; and of that percentage approximately 65 percent of beef exports come from countries with nationally significant traceability systems in place or under development.

WPI, a Washington, D.C.-based agricultural market analysis and consulting firm, also noted that U.S. and India account for the majority of global beef exports that come from countries without nationally significant traceability systems in place. “This is not to say that U.S. product quality suffers compared to other top exporters,” said the authors of a WPI 2018 report, the Comprehensive Feasibility Study: U.S. Beef Cattle Identification and Traceability Systems. And they point out that it is “not fair to imply that the U.S. is at a competitive disadvantage on the export market without a system.”

Although U.S. beef is recognized as a global leader at all points along the beef value chain, without traceability such a system would indeed add value, as Kniebel and Teagarden suggest. WPI goes so far as to contend that without a national animal identification and traceability footprint, the U.S. beef industry could hamper its efforts to gain maximum value at all points on the chain. With a system, however, WPI argues American beef producers will accrue these benefits:

  • Enhanced consumer confidence.

  • A bigger marketing toolbox with which to compete for growing global protein demand around the world and to differentiate U.S. beef from others in existing markets.

  • The ability to mitigate shock and better manage animal disease outbreaks.

For producers worried about privacy and keeping their data secure, both Teagarden and Kniebel, are quick to assure that the only information that would be scanned and logged in this traceability system is the date, time, location and ear tag number.

How It’s Shaped

In January, 2020, multiple state cattlemen’s organizations joined CattleTrace, Inc, a nonprofit coalition that included the Kansas Livestock Association and cattle groups from Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, Kentucky, Oregon and Washington. Now called U.S. CattleTrace, this new initiative integrated traceability pilot projects in Florida and Texas – such as those run by Florida Cattlemen’s Association, Texas Cattle Feeders Association, Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association and Kentucky Cattlemen’s Association. 

Kansas Livestock’s Teagarden said “KLA is fortunate to be part of U.S. CattleTrace.” Putting traceability infrastructure in place nationally, he said, is an opportunity to share information along a broader stretch of the supply chain. “It will let us [U.S. beef] get better connected with consumers, who are becoming more aware of meat quality and safety.” 

U.S. CattleTrace’s goal is to develop a national infrastructure for disease traceability and encourage private industry’s use of the infrastructure for individualized management practices. “Cattle disease traceability is a top priority in the beef cattle industry, and this partnership will continue to help guide the development of an enhanced traceability system in the United States,” said Jim Lovell, past Texas Cattle Feeders Association chairman. “Our different state projects have always had a similar goal in mind – to develop a disease traceability system that works across the country. Combining our efforts makes this initiative stronger on a national level.”

How It’s Shaping Up

Leaders from each of the partner groups have agreed to establish guiding principles for U.S. CattleTrace, said program manager Cassie Kniebel, in a release announcing the formation and incorporation of the partnership in January. She noted her focus will be on these goals: 

  • Developing electronic I.D. and electronic transfer of data capabilities to protect U.S. producers’ share of the protein market from the potential impact of a disease event. 

  • Developing a voluntary national traceability system to include all cattle and complement the current USDA regulations. 

  • Building a system that is recognized as nationally significant to all domestic and foreign markets. 

  • Treating all industry segments equitably under management of a producer board of directors to ensure data privacy and protection. 

Kniebel stressed that the use of one technology for a U.S. cattle industry disease traceability system is the best strategy to maximize the value of technology investment. Since multiple RFID technologies are in use today, she noted, U.S. CattleTrace will accept data in a standardized electronic format. “But we hope to transition to ultra-high frequency technology by December 31, 2023.” 

Kniebel and Teagarden support and encourage proactive producer participation in U.S. CattleTrace, suggesting those who do will be at the forefront of this industry-driven initiative, and will emerge as influencers for the advancement of traceability systems in the future. The traceability platform system has the potential to add value to their operation across the board – from inventory, animal health and operations management to enhanced domestic and international trade.