auction records. The paper tags, called back tags, may adhere for 72 hours depending on wet or dry conditions and animal movement such as rubbing. The USDA rule accepts back tags
as an acceptable form of identifi - cation for cattle moving directly to slaughter, as long as the cattle are killed within 72 hours of the movement. The Texas rule requires perma-
nent identifi cation, and Ellis and the TAHC inspectors are working with the 17 federal packing plants in Texas (plants that accept cattle moved interstate) to address this difference in the USDA and TAHC regulations. “Some of the slaughter plants in
Texas feed cattle when they want to. If they don’t have an order for all their cattle, they may feed the rest for up to 2 months, holding
them in pens away from the plant. “It is hard to fi gure out the ul-
timate destination of the animal sold. Only the buyer knows where it’s going, so the TAHC rule says that at change of ownership adult cattle have to have tags.” Therefore, Ellis says, “The sim-
plest way to be consistent is to tag the adult cattle. Then the folks who buy them can do whatever they want with them.”
Why do we need an animal disease traceability rule? Animal disease is expensive to
producers and negatively impacts domestic and export markets. While incidents of certain diseases are be- ing reduced in the state and national cow herds, cases still occur. “We have more than 100 brucel-
losis suspects a year to investigate, 25 or more tuberculosis suspects a
year,” Ellis says. “We had more than 400 animals infected with trichomo- niasis last year, and we conducted 19 foreign animal disease investi- gations in cattle last year. We need traceability to quickly fi nd animals to fi nd the infection source or where it spread to. Effective traceability is the cornerstone of disease control.” Moving forward, the commission
and industry leaders who make up the Texas Animal Health Com- mission are “willing to listen to good ideas and put them in place if possible, without substantively weakening our traceability efforts,” Ellis says. Learn more about this issue at
the Cattle Raisers Convention break- out session on this topic. Visit tscra. org/convention for session sched- ules and details. The Cattle Raisers Convention is March 22 to 24, Fort Worth.