Records are essential when raising animals for food production. To ensure consumer confidence
and maintain the marketability of meat products, livestock owners need to document the safety
of their product. Through effective recordkeeping, producers can strengthen consumer
confidence by demonstrating tight control over potential risk factors. Recordkeeping also
provides a tool for producers to monitor quality, efficiency, effectiveness, and success within
their herd management scheme. Complete, accurate livestock records also assist producers in
making management decisions regarding breeding, culling, and sale.
Animal identification is essential for recordkeeping and is an integral part of animal disease
traceability. All livestock should have a unique identifying number. Most breed registration
associations for livestock require that animals be marked with a permanent tattoo (usually in
their ear). However, slaughter animals are unlikely to be registered with a breed association and
are generally identified with a unique visual number instead. Ear tagging has been a preferred
method of animal identification. However, USDA has a commitment to enhance traceability of
cattle and swine by encouraging the use of electronic (RFID) ear tags versus visual tags alone.
Some species incorporate health program compliance tags (such as Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) or scrapie eradication tags) as their animal identification tags. For species requiring dual
identification, such as cervids, dual tags or a combination of an ear tag and tattoo or microchip is
required. Accurate birth records are also essential for product testing and assuring quality to
consumers. Ear notching may be an acceptable form of identification if performed on animals
less than two weeks of age and acceptable for regulatory agencies for that species of animal.
Depending on how animals are managed, breeding dates may not be known. However, dates of
birth for resulting offspring should be noted down if possible. Accurate birth records are
essential for age verification of slaughter animals and have a direct impact on product testing,
quality assurance and on legal requirements for discarding specific parts of the animal depending
on whether the animal is of an age to be infected with specific pathogens. Herd of origin records
and movement documentation are also essential for tracking and eradicating important livestock
diseases by identifying the origin of the disease and other animals likely exposed. Because many
of these diseases have long incubation periods, birthing and herd of origin records may be
required to be kept for a minimum of 5 years or the lifetime of the animal.
Recordkeeping requirements, movement documentation and official USDA livestock
identification to ensure animal disease traceability vary depending upon the species raised, its
sex/age, whether it is entering the slaughter chain and/or engaged in interstate transportation. The
following regulations and Uniform Methods and Rules from the USDA’s Animal and Plant
Health Inspection Service (“APHIS”) are applicable to most livestock farmers.
For scrapie (goats and sheep):
USDA APHIS, Scrapie Program Standards Volume 1: National Scrapie Eradication Program (2019),
https://www.aphis.usda.gov/animal_health/animal_diseases/scrapie/downloads/nsep-program-standards
final-rule.pdf
For tuberculosis:
USDA APHIS, Bovine Tuberculosis Eradication: Uniform Methods and Rules (2004),
https://www.aphis.usda.gov/animal_health/animal_diseases/tuberculosis/downloads/tb-umr.pdf
National Tuberculosis Eradication Program, USDA APHIS, https://www.aphis.usda.gov/aphis/ourfocus
/animalhealth/animal-disease-information/cattle-disease-information/national-tuberculosis-eradication
program (last modified Sept. 10, 2018).
For brucellosis:
National Brucellosis Eradication Program, USDA APHIS, https://www.aphis.usda.gov/aphis/ourfocus
/animalhealth/animal-disease-information/cattle-disease-information/national-brucellosis-eradication (last
modified Sept. 10, 2018).
USDA APHIS, Brucellosis Eradication, Uniform Methods and Rules (2003), https://www.aphis.usda.gov
/animal_health/animal_diseases/brucellosis/downloads/umr_bovine_bruc.pdf. Chapter Two of this
document specifically concerns Bovine Brucellosis.
USDA APHIS, Swine Brucellosis Control/Eradication: State-Federal-Industry Uniform Methods and Rules
(1998), https://www.aphis.usda.gov/animal_health/animal_dis_spec/swine/downloads/sbruumr.pdf
What Is Swine Brucellosis, USDA APHIS, https://www.aphis.usda.gov/aphis/ourfocus/animalhealth
/animal-disease-information/swine-disease-information/swine-brucellosis (last modified Aug. 31, 2018)
USDA APHIS, Brucellosis in Cervidae: Uniform Methods and Rules (2003), https://www.aphis.usda.gov
/animal_health/animal_diseases/brucellosis/downloads/bcervumr.pdf
Cervids: Bovine Brucellosis in Cervids, USDA APHIS,
https://www.aphis.usda.gov/aphis/ourfocus/animalhealth/animal-disease
information/!ut/p/z0/fY7LDoIwFES_hiW5xRjUJVEDPuIaumkuUORqaaEtRP9eQmLiytXkTE4mAxxy4B
onuqMno1HNXPBY3KJ9yrbr6JoeDxFLst3pkm1ixtIVnIH_F
YFegwDT4BXRnv58pBj35ITC2ovFJUW7TtgDoUZrWhMNbqFUFOHSrQSlW9_m5qcRCcF6cbYbjkbsE
raiepvurA0E2kZlnaspFLGkYP-yYsPuMXIhw!!/ (last modified Sept. 18, 2018)
USDA APHIS, Animal Disease Traceability
https://www.aphis.usda.gov/aphis/ourfocus/animalhealth/SA_Traceability (last modified July 9, 2019)
