Benefits and Costs Associated With An Animal Identification System for Cattle in the United States

2-1 Benefits and Costs Associated With An Animal Identification System for Cattle in the United States DeeVon Bailey, Ph. D. Department of Economics Cooperative Extension Service Utah State University Logan, Utah [email protected] Overview The announcement on December 23, 2003 that a dairy cow in Washington state had been diagnosed with Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE or Mad-Cow Disease) was a watershed event for U.S. livestock markets. Although U.S. consumer demand for beef remained strong following this event, the U.S. beef industry and U.S. government recognized the need to move rapidly forward with plans to implement some type of traceability within U.S. livestock systems. Secretary Ann Veneman (USDA) announced in early January 2004 that USDA planned to begin implementing a “verifiable” animal identification (ID) system in the United States. There are different reasons for initiating an ID system capable of tracking cattle as they move through the food chain—some directly related to BSE and some indirecly related. The pupose of this fact sheet is to discuss some of the potential reasons for implementing an animal ID system in the United States and some of the possible benefits and costs associated with animal ID systems.