SANTA FE, N.M. (RFD-TV) — With cattle imports back underway at the southern border, more technology is being used to improve traceability and keep herds safe.
New Mexico veterinarian Samantha Holeck says most records are now electronic as cattle move through the import process.
“When those cattle are sorted on the American side and a new lot is assembled, those animals have to have individual ID. They always did before as well, but now we’re actually recording those individual IDs and documenting it on the health certificate or CVI (Certificate of Veterinary Inspection) that is traveling with those cattle when they leave. That’s a different process because before we were relying on the international import paperwork and identifying just kind of a range of numbers and sending those cattle knowing that they came from this range of numbers, but not actually having the individual ID because it was not electronic.”
Holeck says electronic ID has made the process more efficient, replacing an older system that sometimes caused problems during import.
“It used to be a blue metal clip that was applied when those animals were TB tested. And that metal clip sometimes causes more damage to the ear than the electronic ID. So some of those animals were getting rejected strictly because of the injury from the blue metal clip. By eliminating that and having fewer ear tags and having something that’s electronic, we’ve made huge leaps and bounds of improvement on traceability.”
Since June, USDA says it has logged more than 2,200 drone flights across Texas to monitor for New World screwworm.
