Return to TFB Main Page
Return to Current Edition
Texas Agriculture Archive
March 3, 2006
State animal health commission delays premise identification ruling
By Bobby Horecka
Field Editor
Hearing complaints ranging from privacy invasion to infringement of certain religious practices, state animal health officials opted to delay ruling on the proposed premise identification plan pending further review.
Once approved, the Premise ID plan will require landowners to register with the state the types of animals kept on a particular piece of property. And because state lawmakers required an implementation of fees within the enabling legislation for the plan, it also assesses landowners a $10 per year fee beginning July 1, 2006 for the reporting of those animals.
Dr. Bob Hillman, Texas State Veterinarian, said Premise ID involves providing Texas Animal Health Commission (TAHC) with a contact name, phone number, physical address and the types of animals housed, managed or otherwise handled on a piece of property, such as a ranch, veterinary clinic, arena or livestock market.
Under the current plan, owners are required to report only the species—not number—of the animals kept on the property, and Hillman said, all information is kept confidential. Roughly 7,000 of the roughly 200,000 farms in the Lone Star State have already registered with TAHC, all under voluntary compliance measures currently available.
Premise ID is the first in a series of steps needed for what TAHC said will be a national animal identification system that allows health officials to better identify, track and ultimately, contain and treat animal disease outbreaks when they occur.
More than 600 written comments were received by TAHC during the comment period which ended on Feb. 6. More than 80 individuals rose to speak at the standing-room-only hearing of the issue at Austin's Red Lion Inn on Feb. 16.
"Based on the diseases we've seen surface around the world during the last few years, it is evident we need some method of finding the source and stopping it before it spreads any further," Texas Farm Bureau spokesman Jon Johnson said. "Controlling the spread of the disease is the main mission of premise identification, and whether you have one animal or 3,000 animals, they're all subject to disease."
Dr. Hillman listed a number of disease outbreaks right here in Texas during the last five years including—TB, brucellosis, and exotic Newcastle disease. In each case, animal health officials were left scrambling to try and identify and isolate the problem, and in most cases, despite the loss of several animals as a preventative measure, the exact source of the problem was never truly identified.
"Once this is fully implemented, we will be able to trace the movement and source of a disease within 48 hours of its discovery, thereby lessening the number of animals it may affect," Dr. Hillman said.
Premise identification helps establish the process of a fully implemented animal identification system at the national level, Dr. Hillman said. Stage two involves identifying and marking the animals when they are sold. The final step allows animal health officials to track the movement of an animal or group of animals from place to place.
Farm Bureau members at both the state and national levels have thrown their support behind the animal identification programs, voting in policies at their annual meetings to assist in the establishment of these needed programs.
But not everyone stood behind the proposed plan at the TAHC hearing.
Several took issue with the costs involved—$10 per year after July 1, paid every biennium to register a premise. Others expressed concerns over parameters of the program, particularly in the language focusing on equines which remains vague. Still others spoke against the proposal making it a Class C misdemeanor for not getting premises registered.
But by far the most protested of issues was the perceived loss of privacy landowners would face in having to report to the government any time they chose to keep a few chickens or buy a goat.
TAHC members plan to revisit the matter when they convene for their next meeting later this year.
"Although commission action on the proposed regulations has been postponed, we continue to encourage voluntary premises registration," Dr. Hillman said.
More information on premise identification is available at the TAHC website at www.tahc.tx.us.
