Delegates at NPPC’s annual business meeting in Anaheim, Calif., March 3 approved a resolution calling on packers to require premises ID numbers as a condition of sale and on breed registries to require premises ID numbers as part of the registration process. Delegates also passed a resolution stating that producers continue to support a mandatory national ID system.

NPPC and the National Pork Board in 2005 formed a task force, made up of industry stakeholders, to implement a national swine ID system based on the one the pork industry has had since 1988. That system was used to successfully eradicate pseudorabies.

Supported by previously approved delegate resolutions, the task force has called for mandatory premises registration, which includes owner and location data, by Dec. 31, 2007, and mandatory animal IDs for all relevant species by Dec. 31, 2008.

According to an analysis conducted by the National Pork Board, more than 50 percent of pork producers nationwide already have registered their premises.

“Making premises registration part of the marketing and breed registry processes,” said NPPC President Jill Appell, a pork producer from Altona, Ill., “will help ensure that we meet our goal of having this important animal-health tool functional by the end of 2008.”

ThePigSite News Desk