"These funds have been set aside to support premises registration activities," said Veneman. "A national animal identification system will help locate premises where animals are born, managed, marketed or exhibited. States that applied for funding in July and were not selected at that time are now eligible for a portion of the $1.5 million if they meet specified requirements."

Earlier this year, the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) received a transfer of $18.8 million from USDA's Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) to begin implementing the NAIS. Of this amount, APHIS originally set aside $11.64 million for cooperative agreements with state and tribal governments. USDA has now set aside $1.5 million more to fund additional cooperative agreements. The remainder of the funds is being used in support of other aspects of the national system, including building database architecture and carrying out outreach activities.

In August, APHIS selected 29 projects from more than 40 applications for cooperative agreement funding. The focus of these cooperative agreements is chiefly on premises identification and registration. Some states and tribes will be evaluating animal identification technologies to determine how the collection of records can be automated.

Each of the states that had applied this past summer but were not selected have been notified that they are now eligible for a minimum of $100,000 to carry out premises registration activities. Depending on the number of livestock operations in the state, that amount could be increased by up to $30,000. The revised applications are due by Dec. 1 and must address any feedback received during the evaluation of their first-round application.

The NAIS continues to be a USDA priority. The President's fiscal year 2005 budget requests $33 million to continue supporting its implementation and a portion of these funds would be used for additional cooperative agreements with states and tribes. They will continue to register premises and also phase in animal identification systems at a state or regional level.

Source: American Meat Institute (AMI) - 28th October 2004