Top 10 Myths About NAIS

By Judith McGeary
Executive Director of the Farm and Ranch Freedom Alliance

1. MYTH: NAIS is federal law

FACT: No federal statute authorizes electronic tracking of individual animals, and bills that have been introduced to establish such a system have languished in committee.₁

2. MYTH: NAIS won’t apply to when you sell a chicken to your neighbor/ when you take your horse on a trail ride or to a local show/ whatever other exemption you have heard

FACT: The USDA’s published documents make provisions for no exceptions. The USDA lists codes for the following “events” to be reported: animal id tag distributed, tag applied, animal moved into a premises, animal moved out of a premises, tag lost and new tag applied, replaced tag or re-tagged, animal slaughtered at slaughterhouse, animal died on the farm, animal missing. There’s even a code for “sighting”, defined as “animal has a confirmed sighting at a location, no movement has occurred (ex: veterinarian sighting).”₂ Looking at horses in particular, the equine working group submitted recommendations in 2004 which recommended that the owners file reports whenever horses are transported interstate, intrastate when commingled with other horses or livestock, or to premises or events where a health certificate or Coggins is required.₃ So you will have to report when you take your horse to a local show or trail ride.

3. MYTH: NAIS will protect us against Mad Cow disease.

FACT: Mad Cow is not contagious, takes years to develop, and is completely preventable. NAIS is designed to do only one thing: provide 48-hour traceback of animal movements. This is simply not relevant to protecting our food supply from Mad Cow disease.₄ Moreover, the USDA has stated that it estimates that there are only four to seven (4 – 7) cows in the entire U.S. who have BSE or Mad Cow Disease,₅ and that it’s not even necessary to conduct testing to protect our food supply. Indeed, the USDA refuses to allow a U.S. company, Creekstone Farms & Premium Beef, to voluntarily test all of its cattle for BSE, in order to satisfy its customers’ wishes. If BSE is not enough of a threat to justify (or even allow) testing, then certainly it cannot be the basis for requiring millions of animals to be electronically tagged and every move tracked.

4. MYTH: NAIS will protect us against the H5N1 avian flu

FACT: Only 103 people have died from the H5N1 virus worldwide since 2003, mostly in third-world countries where people live in unsanitary conditions with their animals.₆ The concern about H5N1 is if it becomes human-human transmissible. At this time, as the CDC states, “it is important to remember that H5N1 avian influenza is almost exclusively a disease of birds.”₇ In the unlikely event that H5N1 were to become human-human transmissible, tracking poultry would be entirely irrelevant! If we are concerned about the spread of infection in poultry, we should focus on the commercial confinement operations, where thousands of birds are kept at high density in unsanitary conditions, the prime breeding grounds for disease. A recent report indicates that the spread of the H5N1 virus is due to the conditions in confinement poultry operations.₈

5. MYTH: NAIS will protect against bioterorism.

FACT: The ISO technology that is the stated preference for both Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags for cattle and microchips in horses can be easily reprogrammed. A terrorist could reprogram hundreds of the tags to read the exact same number, making tracking impossible. RFID technology is also susceptible to computer viruses, being cloned, and outright destruction.₉ Further, no database is truly secure, and NAIS will provide a list of the locations of every single person who raises animals, vulnerable to every hacker.

6. MYTH: NAIS will increase food safety

FACT: Most food-borne illnesses are from bacteria such as salmonella, e. coli, and campylobacter, or a specific group of viruses called the Norwalk viruses .₁₀ These organisms contaminate food due to poor practices at slaughterhouses or in food handling.₁₁ NAIS will do nothing to protect against these problems. Moreover, the tracking ends at the time of slaughter, so it will not add to the government’s ability to trace contaminated meats once they are in the food chain.

7. MYTH: NAIS is a market-driven program/ cattle producers will obtain premiums for doing the tracking / we need NAIS to protect our export market

FACT: NAIS is being funded by our tax dollars, as USDA gives millions of dollars of grants to states and to private companies to develop the systems to implement it. In other words, companies are being paid by the government to develop a system under which they will later profit, when animal owners are required by the government to tag and track their animals, paying fees for the upkeep of these databases. This is not the free market at work!Premiums are only available for things that some people do and some people don’t do. If NAIS is made mandatory, so that everyone has to tag and track their animals, there will be no premiums. Only a handful of large companies will profit from the export market. Meanwhile, the costs of the program will drive small producers out of business, enabling large companies to increase their control of agriculture and contributing to higher prices for consumers as competition is eliminated.₁₂

8. MYTH: will not be expensive

FACT: The cost of microchips and radio tags varies depending on the quantity used, and can be very expensive for small lots. And that is just the beginning of the cost. The farmer and rancher will have to pay for the injectors to implant the tags (or pay a veterinarian to do it), for scanners to read the tags, for computers (many do not have computers), and for frequent updates so that they can file their reports. They will also have to install the equipment necessary to handle each animal individually for the tagging process. There is also the cost in time. Animals will not neatly line up and walk through to be tagged and chipped; they will have to be caught and handled, a time-consuming process. And then there’s the time involved in filing reports every time an animal leaves or enters the property. And there will be fees associated with the reporting; after all, someone has to pay for the upkeep of the database. The government has not tried to quantify any of these costs before trying to force this program on millions of animal owners.

9. MYTH: NAIS will protect us against foot and mouth disease/brucellosis/ whatever other disease is popular

FACT: At best, all NAIS will do is provide 48-hour traceback of animal movements. It will not address the causes of disease. It will not stop the spread of disease across our borders. It will not address the spread of disease by wild animals. NAIS proponents also ignore that we already have well-established means of tracking animals: brands, tattoos, sales records, the scrapie program (for sheep). While it may take a bit longer than 48 hours, there is no epidemiological basis that makes 48 hours a magic number. Our existing tracking and quarantine methods have served us well. Disease is a fact of life. Are you willing to trade your freedom in return for a government bureaucracy that can’t even deliver any real protection?

10. MYTH: Small farms and ranches pose the same, or even greater, threat of disease as large, commercial operations.

FACT: Scientific evidence establishes that animal management is critical in whether animals are susceptible to disease and how likely disease is to spread.₁₃ Independent farms and ranches raise their animals on pasture, which is a more natural and healthier environment. Sunlight kills bacteria and viruses, and the low density of animals means that there is less chance that an illness would mutate to a highly pathogenic form and spread.₁₄ In contrast, confinement facilities and feedlots raise animals in entirely unnatural and unhealthy conditions. The damp, manure-infested environment is the perfect breeding ground for mutating diseases, while the high density of animals means that illness can spread like wildfire.₁₅ If we want to address disease, we need to address the causes of disease in the large commercial facilities, not unnecessarily burden our small and medium-size farmers and ranchers.

1. The USDA has stated that the Animal Health Protection Act is the source of its authority. But that statute addresses only import and export of animals, interstate travel, quarantines areas, and related programs. See Animal Health Protection Act, 7 U.S.C. §§ 8301-8320 (Supp. 2005). The statute contains no provisions that mention registration of every livestock owner’s farm or a nationwide or intrastate animal identification and tracking program, nor are there any provisions that would provide authority for such a program. Indeed, there were multiple bills introduced in the 108th Congress to amend the statute to provide for an animal identification system and limit disclosures of the information collected under the Freedom of Information Act, and none were adopted. See HR 3787, HR 3822, HR 3961, S 2070 & S 2008, 108th Congress (2004-05). There are three bills that have been introduced during the current Congressional session for the same reasons. See HR 1254, HR 1256 & HR 3170, 109th Congress (2005-06). Congress clearly recognizes the USDA’s lack of authority, even if the USDA has ignored that problem.

2. Draft program Standards at 13

3. “Commingled” is defined as “an animal having contact with, or being inter-mixed with, animals other than herdmates from that animal’s premises of origin.”) National Animal Identification System: Questions and Answers, United States Department of Agriculture, http://animalid.aphis.usda.gov/nais/newsroom/factsheets/nais_qa_factsheet.shtml at 7 (website last checked Mar. 11, 2006). Under public pressure, the working group has unofficially stated that it will be modifying its recommendation to the following: “Any horse that is transported to any premises where the movement must be reported shall be identified with an official form of identification. When horses are transported to any premises where a brand inspection, Certificate of Veterinary Inspection or other health papers are required, the movement must be reported to the appropriate USDA-approved tracking database.” In Texas, and many other states, health papers such as a negative Coggins test are required for horses to go to on trail rides and local shows and rodeos. In other words, while the new recommendation might mean that you don’t have to report taking your horse to your neighbor’s house, you will still have to report when you go even small, local events.

4. See our articles section at http://www.farmandranchfreedom.org/jm4.24.2006.html for a more detailed discussion of why NAIS will not address BSE.

5. USDA Press Release Release No. 0143.06 (Apr. 28, 2006).

6. Christian Nordqvist, Bird Flu Reported In 45 Countries So Far, Medical News Today (Mar. 22, 2006), at http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/healthnews.php?newsid=40062 (website last checked May 10, 2006)

7. http://www.pandemicflu.gov/news/birdfluinamerica.html

8. Genetic Resources Action International (“GRAIN”), Fowl Play: The Poultry Industry’s Central Role in the Bird Flu Crisis (Feb. 2006) (hereinafter “GRAIN Report”).

9. There are numerous articles about the problems with RFIDs in general, and the ISO technology in particular. For some more information, read Annalee Newitz, The RID Hacking Undergound, http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/14.05/rfid_pr.html (website last visited May 8, 2006); John Markoff, Study Says Chips in ID Tags Are Vulnerable to Viruses, NY Times (March 15, 2006); The Controversial ISO 11784/11785 Standard, ISO 11784/85: A Short Discussion (http://www.rfidnews.com/iso_11784short.html (website last visited February 18, 2005).

10. See Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dbmd/diseaseinfo/foodborneinfections_g.htm#mostcommon (website last checked May 8, 2006). Campylobacter, salmonella, and e. coli are all found in the intestines of animals, so that contamination occurs during the slaughter process. The Norwalk viruses are believed to spread primarily from one infected person to another, through handling of food by infected kitchen workers or fishermen.

11. See Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dbmd/diseaseinfo/foodborneinfections_g.htm#mostcommon (website last checked May 8, 2006). “Meat and poultry carcasses can become contaminated during slaughter by contact with small amounts of intestinal contents. Similarly, fresh fruits and vegetables can be contaminated if they are washed or irrigated with water that is contaminated with animal manure or human sewage. … Later in food processing, other foodborne microbes can be introduced from infected humans who handle the food, or by cross contamination from some other raw agricultural product.”

12. This is commonly referred to as the “vertical integration of agriculture,” where the big companies own the entire system of producing meat, so that they can control the market. The poultry and swine industries are almost entirely vertically integrated already, but the cattle, sheep, and goat raisers have so far resisted the pressures to consolidate.

13.The health problems caused by confinement or industrial management systems have been well documented in the scientific literature. See, e.g., Cravener, T.L., W.B. Roush, and M.M Mashaly, Broiler Production Under Varying Population Densities, POULT. SCI. 71(3):427-33 (1992); M.R. Baxter, The Welfare Problems of Laying Hens in Battery Cages, VET. REC. 134(24):614- 19 (1994); D. Herenda and O. Jakel, Poultry Abbatoir Survey of Carcass Condemnation for Standard, Vegetarian, and Free Range Chickens, CAN. VET. J. 35(5):293-6 (1994); T.G. Nagaraja and M.M. Chengappa, Liver Abscesses in Feedlot Cattle: A Review, J. ANIM. SCI. 76(1):287-98 (1998); T.G. Nagaraja, M.L. Galyean, and N.A. Cole, Nutrition and Disease, VET. CLIN. N. AM. FOOD ANIM. PRAC. 14(2):257-77 (1998); D.H. Tokarnia, J. Dobereiner, P.V. Peixoto, and S.S. Moraes, Outbreak of Copper Poisoning in Cattle Fed Poultry Litter, VET. HUM. TOXICOL. 42(2):92-5 (2000)

14.See Exotic Newcastle Disease, Information from the Texas Animal Health Commission (Apr. 2004) (“In close confinement, such as commercial operations, the disease can spread like wildfire. … However, the virus is destroyed rapidly by dehydration and by the ultraviolet rays in sunlight.”) (emphasis added).

15. During the Exotic Newcastle Disease outbreak in California, for example, the American Veterinary Medical Association noted that the “virus can be spread by vaccination and beak trimming crews, manure handlers, and poultry farm employees. It can also survive for several weeks in a warm, humid environment on birds’ feathers, manure, and other materials.” R. Scott Nolen, Emergency Declared: Exotic Newcastle Disease Found in Commercial Poultry Farms, JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN VETERINARY MEDICAL ASSOCIATION NEWS (Feb. 15, 2003).

Judith McGeary is an attorney in Austin, Texas, and the Executive Director of the Farm and Ranch Freedom Alliance. She has a B.S. in Biology from Stanford University and a J.D. with high honors from The University of Texas at Austin. She began her legal career by clerking for the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. Since then, her practice has focused on environmental law, commercial litigation, and appeals. She and her husband run a small farm with horses, cattle, sheep, and poultry. Ms. McGeary is also on the steering committee for the Liberty Ark Coalition. For more information, go to www.libertyark.net or www.farmandranchfreedom.org or call 1-866-687-6452.

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