AgInfoLink

National Animal Identification System

USDA is implementing a National Animal Identification System to improve animal health surveillance. Participation in NAIS is voluntary. When a disease outbreak occurs, federal and state animal health officials need to know:

Which animals are involved in a disease outbreak
Where the infected animals are currently located
What other animals might have been exposed to the disease

By choosing to participate in NAIS, producers join a national disease response network built to protect their animals, their neighbors, and their economic livelihood against the devastation of a foreign animal disease outbreak. There are three critical steps to participate in NAIS:

Premises Registration - Contact your state department of agriculture, your state veterinarian, or AgInfoLink for assistance.

Animal Identification - AgInfoLink can help you identify your animals with official tags/devices to enroll the animal in NAIS. Contact AgInfoLink for details. It can be as easy as simply tagging your animal, nothing more. AgInfoLink is a USDA-approved Animal Identification Number (AIN) manager and can source multiple brands of official AIN tags for customers.

Animal Tracing - The final step involves recording key events in the animal’s life, such as tagging, sightings, movements, and termination. All steps beyond the initial tagging are optional. The additional steps do, however, assist in improving the quality of disease surveillance by animal health officials. AgInfoLink can assist producers in collecting and reporting appropriate tracing information. AgInfoLink can also assist producers in keeping that information confidential until such time as that animal is involved in an animal disease event. AgInfoLink is well equipped to protect the confidentiality and privacy of producer data. As a USDA-approved Animal Tracking Database (ATD), AgInfoLink has the ability to receive, maintain, and secure multi-species animal identification sighting, movement, and event data. AgInfoLink only shares the data to USDA as required by the ATD Cooperative Agreement. Data shared to USDA is limited to animal ID, premises ID, event code, time/date.

AgInfoLink is approved by USDA to provide a wide range of NAIS compliant services for the industry. AgInfoLink has the ability to fully comply with NAIS for all of our customers that seek to participate in this system. For more information on AgInfoLink solutions, contact 800.287.8787 or email info@AgInfoLink.com.

References:
US Department of Agriculture (USDA) www.usda.gov/nais
National Institute for Animal Agriculture (NIAA) www.animalagriculture.org