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Accredited Veterinarians and Required Recordkeeping
The federal Animal Disease Traceability (ADT) rule is now two years old and with that USDA is starting to place more emphasis on compliance of the rule with regards to state animal health officials, private practice veterinarians, and producers. Here is a brief explanation of what veterinarians need to know about the required record keeping within the ADT rule.
The rule requires that veterinarians maintain records regarding animal movement and identification for five years for cattle, bison, sheep, goats, horses, and captive cervids; for pigs and poultry records need to be kept for two years.
As part of the required federal recordkeeping requirements, the State Veterinarian’s Office is asking accredited veterinarians to examine how health certificate and official animal ID records are maintained for your livestock clients. The records kept in your care need to indicate the numbers of official identification ear tags placed in a producer’s animals.
Whether the tag numbers are from brucellosis vaccination tags, silver metal USDA tags, or 840-series tags, a master log or spreadsheet should be kept so that you or your staff can quickly tell which producer received which official ID ear tags. Or in the situation when you place an official identification ear tag such as silver metal tag or an 840-tag in the ear of a cow that lost her Brucellosis vaccination tag, we need to have you to keep a record of that. The need for this is related to the need to identify animals during an animal disease investigation or disease outbreak. Often times, we can trace a tag dispensed to a veterinary clinic but sometimes the trace cannot be pursued to a livestock producer. This applies to brucellosis vaccination tags even though you already submit the brucellosis vaccination form (USDA’s form 4-26).
A way to track tags may be as simple as keeping a record of the tag # or tag series, date the tag(s) were applied, and the owner’s name as shown below. Then if we need you to look up a tag number you can find it on your list and if necessary, pull the owner’s record and see what work was done for them on that day. Basically, it is a master index of tags placed in your client’s livestock.
An example:
| Tag # or Series | Date | Owner | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 84VVG1234-1255 | January 15, 2015 | Smith, M. | Brucellosis vaccinated heifers |
| 840000123456789 | February 1, 2015 | Jones, D. | Tagged adult cow headed to NE |
| 84KGY5890 | February 3, 2015 | Johnson Ranches | Trich tested bull for sale |
This is just one suggested way for keeping official ID tagging records; you may already have a much better way to do it. If not, below are two links to a spreadsheet to get you started – one is a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet and one is a form that can be printed out for use in a notebook.
If you have any questions, please contacts the staff at the State Veterinarian’s Office at 303-869-9130 during business hours, M-F, 8-5pm.