All livestock to be registered with state [WI-Yes, fish too]

BARABOO - Even if residents own as little as a few chickens, some horses or a pet llama, a new state law requires that animal owners register all premises where livestock are kept.

Beginning Nov. 1, people must register with the state locations where livestock are kept, said Robert Fourdraine, chief operating officer of the Wisconsin Livestock Identification Consortium, a nonprofit organization working with the state Department of Agriculture. This is a first step toward implementing a nationwide system of livestock identification.

A wide variety of animals are considered livestock under the law, a including: fish; cattle and bison; alpacas; deer, elk and moose; horses; captive birds such as pheasants, emu and waterfowl; poultry and sheep. Registration is required of all livestock owners, including those keeping an animal defined as livestock as a pet or for hobby purposes.

Livestock owners are asked to complete their registration by Jan. 1, Fourdraine said. Once the window for registration ends, the law establishes penalties for livestock owners who don't comply.

The registration of addresses where livestock are kept is part of an effort to control future outbreaks of animal and human illness, said Paul Dietmann, Sauk County's University of Wisconsin agriculture agent.

"If there were an outbreak of diseases, it would be a lot easier and faster to notify people if livestock have been registered," he said. "You can understand why it's important to know where all the livestock are located and to have a means to quickly notify the people if there is an outbreak."

Disease emergencies involving livestock include the severe outbreak of foot and mouth disease, an illness of animals such as cattle and sheep, in Britain a few years ago, Dietmann said. While it never arrived in the U.S., agriculture authorities had to prepare for the possibility it might.

"The county has an emergency response plan for highly contagious animal diseases," Dietmann said. "If something were to break out, or even if it were suspected, there's a process the county would go through so people who need to know are notified."

Health officials have not yet reported finding the avian or bird flu strain, formally called H5N1, in the U.S., according to press reports. But it has been found in poultry and wild birds in Asia, and just recently in parts of Europe.

Health experts worry H5N1 could mutate and become a deadly flu that easily spreads from person to person. It has killed about 60 people in Asia, but the few made ill generally caught it from contact with poultry.

"Avian flu could be an even bigger concern, because there's (a threat to) humans involved," said Dietmann.

Some farmers are skeptical about the national livestock identification process, he said, because state and federal laws do not yet require animals being imported to the U.S. to be identified and tracked.

"There's a higher requirement for farmers in the United States than there is for farmers who are exporting to the United States," said Dietmann.

A thorough livestock identification program would require registration of both local premises where livestock are kept and country-of-origin labeling for imported animals, Dietmann said. However, he still believes registration of livestock premises is a good idea.

"The faster we can notify people there needs to be a quarantine or something, the better off we are," he said.

In the statement, Fourdraine notes Sauk County is one of the leading counties in Wisconsin for numbers of places where livestock are housed.

Until Oct. 31, livestock owners may register their premises at http://www.wiid.org. After Nov. 1 the appropriate web address is http://www.datcp.state.wi.us/premises.

Owners may also call (888) 808-1910 to receive a registration form. Or they can get one at Sauk County-UW-Extension, Sauk County West Square Building, 505 Broadway, downtown Baraboo. Registration also may be done through a Farm Service Agency office.

Need for ID National Efforts

News Releases

Premises Registration Act

Premises Registration
Animal ID
Animal Tracking

Livestock Owners Urged to Register Premises Now
VERONA, WI (October 24, 2005) It’s time. The Wisconsin Premises Registration Act, which is effective November 1, 2005, requires all those who keep, house, or co-mingle livestock to register their premises. This is an important deadline for livestock owners statewide.

“Livestock,” as defined by the Wisconsin Premises Registration Act rules, includes aquaculture, bovine (bison, cattle), camelids (llamas, alpacas), cervidea (deer, elk, moose, caribou, reindeer and the subfamily musk deer), equine (horses, donkeys, mules), goats, captive game birds (pheasants, quail, wild turkeys, migratory wildfowl, pigeons, and exotic birds), poultry (chickens, turkeys, geese, ducks, guinea fowl), ratites (rheas, ostriches, emu, cassowary, kiwi), sheep, and swine.

Premises registration is the first of three major steps to implement the National Animal Identification System (NAIS) in Wisconsin. The NAIS will help protect animal agriculture by providing livestock owners and animal health officials the infrastructure to reduce the financial and social impacts of a potential animal disease outbreak.

WLIC is a non-profit livestock organization serving as the agent of the Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection (DATCP) to implement a new state law which requires all premises where livestock are housed to be registered effective November 1, 2005.

“Premises registration applies to all livestock owners, not just commercial farms. Any person housing livestock for hobby purposes is also included, regardless of the number of animals,” says Robert Fourdraine, WLIC’s Chief Operating Officer, “Signup is fast and simple.”

There are several ways to register premises at no cost: register online at www.wiid.org or, after November 1 at www.datcp.state.wi.us/premises/ and click on the link for Premises Registration; registrants without computer access may call WLIC at 1-888-808-1910 to request a form; a premises may also be registered through a WLIC agent who, with permission, registers on an applicant’s behalf (for a list of WLIC agents visit www.wiid.org); or one may visit a county Farm Service Agency (FSA) office for on-line registration or to pick up a paper form.

There is a compliance window for registrations. Premises not currently licensed by DATCP are required to register by January 1, 2006. Those premises currently licensed by the Department must register as part of the annual license renewal date. After the compliance windows have closed, penalties for violations are set by statute and are equivalent to other animal health and food safety laws.

“We registered our premises because we believe it is critical to achieve 48-hour trace back capability to minimize the economic impact in the event of an animal disease outbreak. This capability protects the Wisconsin herd as well as our livestock industry,” says Deb Reinhart, dairy farmer and WLIC board chair.

WLIC and its partner organizations have taken an active role in aiding voluntary premises registration. The WLIC is a multi-species effort led by Wisconsin’s livestock and industry organizations in cooperation with DATCP, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the University of Wisconsin-Extension.

http://www.wiid.org/index.php?action=newsnew_release_text&int_release_id=46

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