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Premise ID will be required to show animals

Posted December 07, 2007 10:00 pm

Adriana Colindres

Anybody who wants to show livestock or horses at state, county, 4-H or FFA fairs next year will have to provide a "premises identification number" that specifies where the animal is usually kept.

Officials with the Illinois Department of Agriculture, which announced the new requirement a little more than a month ago, say it will enable them to react faster if an animal-disease outbreak occurs. They say the ID numbers will let them more quickly pinpoint the locations of animals that might have come into contact with a diseased animal.

"It's basically a 911 for livestock-disease protection," said Jim Kunkle, the department's manager of emergency programs and animal identification administrator.

A speedier reaction to disease outbreak would translate into fewer animal deaths, as well as a less-severe blow to the livestock industry, said department spokesman Jeff Squibb.

"If you can contain a disease with a localized quarantine, then everyone else in the industry can continue selling their animals," he said. "But the broader the quarantine, the more producers that are impacted and the more disruption there is to the agricultural economy."

Obtaining a premises ID number requires filling out a questionnaire that asks for a facility's name, address, phone number and the types of livestock raised. It doesn't ask about acreage or herd or flock size.

The form can be filled out online at www.agr.state.il.us/premiseid. Producers also may call (866) 299-9256 to get a copy of the form. The information will remain confidential and will not be available to the public, Kunkle said.

For the past few years, the Department of Agriculture has encouraged livestock producers to register their premises on a voluntary basis.

The agency has implemented mandatory registration for animal exhibitions because such settings provide a good opportunity for the introduction and spread of animal disease, Kunkle said.

Jim Fraley, livestock program director for the Illinois Farm Bureau, agreed.

"You've got all these animals coming from all over," he said. "They have nose-to-nose contact for several days. Then when the fair's over with, they go to the four winds."

Paul Walker, whose children are 4-H members and show cattle and horses, says he strongly supports mandatory premises identification and believes it should be required under state law.

But Walker, whose farm already has a premises ID number, opposes the new requirement for animal exhibitions because it picks on just one aspect of the livestock industry.

"This idea has not been thoroughly thought through," said Walker, who also is a professor of animal science at Illinois State University.

Young people in 4-H and FFA sometimes keep their animals on property that does not belong to their immediate family, Walker said. If such property owners don't want to get a premises-identification number, the affected youngsters won't be able to show animals due to circumstances beyond their control, he said.

In those cases, youngsters should be given a waiver that would allow them to show an animal if the animal has a "health paper" that says a veterinarian found it to be healthy, Walker said.

"A health paper gives the same information that a premises ID number gives," he said.

Officials have begun taking steps to notify people about the new state premises-identification requirement. It is mentioned, for example, on the home pages of the Web sites for the Illinois State Fair and the Illinois Department of Agriculture.

Deb Stocker, an Extension specialist in 4-H youth development at the University of Illinois Extension's state 4-H office, said 4-H and FFA organizations are "trying to get the word out."

"Inevitably, there may be some child that misses it," she said, adding that such competitors still could get registered "at the last minute" and obtain an ID number - as long as the property owner goes along with the idea.

Adriana Colindres can be reached at (217) 782-6292 or adriana.colindres@sj-r.com.

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