(WASHINGTON, D.C.) U.S. Senator Jim Talent (R-Mo.), a member of the Senate Agriculture Committee, today announced that Missouri will receive $433,064 from the federal government to establish the infrastructure for a national animal identification system. Missouri was one of the states selected by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to advance the national animal identification initiative.

"America's food supply remains the safest, most abundant and most affordable in the world," said Talent. "I've been working for months with our producers in an effort to develop workable options to implement a national animal ID system. Now state government can use this funding to establish the framework we need to make the system work."?

The animal ID initiative is being developed so that in the event of a discovery of a foreign disease, we can allow government officials to trace the animal, and every animal it came in contact with as it moved through the production chain within 48 hours.

USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) will distribute the funds to Missouri which can be used to register premises though a standardized system provided by APHIS or through other systems that comply with NAIS data standards. A premise is any location that an animal passes through in the production chain. Each link in the chain is a premise and each premise will need a premise ID.

Missouri is already a leader on Animal ID. In June, the Joplin Regional Stockyards held its very first value-added, source-verified, Radio Frequency Identification Device tag required sale where nearly 6,000 head of calves were run through the auction ring. The tags are used to keep track of animals as they move from premise to premise.

The animal identification initiative is a continuing priority for Sen. Talent. As Chairman of the Senate Agriculture Subcommittee on Marketing, Inspection and Product Promotion, which has jurisdiction over the animal ID initiative and APHIS, Sen. Talent has been working with Missouri producers to make certain the new program is not too burdensome.

Currently, USDA is holding a series of listening sessions across the country to discuss the program including one requested by Sen. Talent to be held in Joplin on August 27. The Joplin meeting will focus on tracking beef and dairy cows.