The U.S. Department of Agriculture has pulled back it’s proposal and timeline for when RFID or Radio Frequency Identification Tags must be used in the livestock industry for animal disease traceability. South Dakota State Veterinarian Dr. Dustin Oedekoven says APHIS had proposed they would no longer distribute the metal ear tags as of January 1, 2020 and livestock producers would have to use RFID tags by January 1, 2021. However, that has changed.
He says USDA will be announcing a new timeline for RFID implementation and will allow comments from stakeholders.
Oedekoven says the metal ID tags have been effective in South Dakota in tracing the source of animal diseases like tuberculosis in cattle. However, he thinks RFID tags will be more efficient.
He says RFID tags are only used for animal health and don’t contain export or food safety information or other sensitive material that was a concern of the cattle industry.
