Proof that Oregon has been working on NAIS for atleast 6 years

OREGON’S COOPERATIVE AGREEMENT WITH THE USDA
This is from the desk of the State Vet, Don Hansen, who told me last year in an email that he did not foresee any NAIS in Oregon’s near future. His contact information, should you wish to voice your displeasure: Don Hansen, Oregon Department of Agriculture, 635 Capitol Street NE, Salem, OR, 97370
Office Phone: 503-986-4680; Cell Phone: 503-510-0333; Fax: 503-986-4734; Email address (Plan Administrator): dhansen@oda.state.or.us

In the interest of making a shorter document for copying and distribution, I have shortened the original without editing or altering the verbiage. I apologize for the loss of easily read tables on this blog.  My comments are in red.
Cut and Pasted from page 5: The Oregon Department of Agriculture (ODA) has the responsibility to control diseases within the state and to eradicate and prevent the spread of infectious, contagious and communicable diseases to the livestock or people of Oregon. To this task, the ODA must rely on it ability to locate infected animals and animals at risk as quickly as possible. Having credible epidemiological information is key to a successful campaign against a disease outbreak. Epidemiological information includes: owner/manager name and phone number; animal’s physical address; livestock species at location; animal identification when available (e.g., brucellosis tag number, back tag number, brand description, scrapie tag number, etc) number of animals present, animals recently arrived and animals recently departed/died. We believe we have a functional traceability system. However, it must be improved if we are expected to protect our livestock populations against disease threats in this age of rapid and expansive animal movement. Our system contains both electronic and paper form data and as such, is not as efficient as it could be. As a functional traceability system, it includes databases that contain certain epidemiological information on imported animals and change of animal ownership transactions (in the field and at auction markets). We know physical addresses for thousands of livestock operations in our state and have personnel contact and animal species information for each.

Cut and Pasted from page 7: Update all electronic information systems and web services to reflect USDA’s current approach for advancing animal disease traceability.

 Upon the announcement of USDA’s current approach, ODA changed our web site to reflect the new direction of USDA. The web url is: http://www.oregon.gov/ODA/AHID/ah_nais.shtml

Develop, further refine, and implement an outreach plan for producers, accredited veterinarians, and livestock markets that describes the applicant’s plan for advancing animal disease traceability

 ODA plans to work closely with Accredited Veterinarians in an effort to keep them apprised of current USDA expectations/requirements.

 This will include providing them the latest information about the use of electronic CVIs provided by USDA.

 ODA will explore possibility for using USDA software for official tag distribution in our state.

ODA staff will be available to assist the Accredited Veterinarians in an effort to keep them apprised of current USDA expectations/requirements.

 This will include providing them the latest information about the use of electronic CVIs provided by USDA.

 ODA will explore possibility for using USDA software for official tag distribution in our state.

 ODA staff will be available to assist the Accredited Veterinarian in the issuance of a PIN when required by AVIC. The Veterinarian will be able to contact staff and provide them with 911 addresses or with GPS information and staff will obtain and relay the PIN to the Accredited Veterinarian.

 Currently, auction yards are working closely with the brand inspection program in the process for collecting data.
Advancing Animal Disease Traceability Work Plan

From Pages 3 and 4, which show how Oregon spent USDA grants:
Funding Year Cooperative Agreement Number Amount Awarded Expenditures De-obligation Accomplishments

FY2004 California/Oregon Interagency Contract Number 04-0714Funded:   $124,710 Spent:  $116,909.79 $0 -Registered more than 1,600 premises
-Tagged 2,555 calves
-Tagged more than 9,000 cows
-Partially tracked 450 cull cows
-Held meetings throughout the state to promote NAIS

FY2005 05-9741-1497 Funded: $248,000 Spent:  $169,321.66 Deobligation: $78,678 -Actively promoted premises registration and animal id
-Provided producers cost-share program
-10,000 NAIS compliant RFID tags
-20 RFID readers

FY2007 07-9741-1497-ca  Funded: $75,815 Spent: $75,815 $0 -Actively promoted premises registration and animal id
-Provided producers cost-share program
- We combined state resources with cooperative agreement funds to initiate revitalized effort that integrated our brand inspection personnel into this animal health/NAIS activity
-Found interoperability mechanisms at local auction markets that could enhance our ability to capture premises identification and subsequent animal movement information within the targeted goal of 48 hours
-Used hand held devises to capture data then transmitted to our centralized database within 48 hours

FY2008 08-9741-1497-CA Funded:  $192,194 Spent: $192,194 $0 -Continued to actively promote an educational effort to advance the premises registration and animal identification aspects of the NAIS
-Included premises registration information and application forms in our annual brand renewal notices
-We continued our efforts, using state resources with cooperative agreement funds, to integrate our brand inspection personnel into this animal health/NAIS activity
-We used hand held devises to capture data then transmitted to our centralized database within 48 hours

FY2009 09-9741-1933-CA Funded: $158,866 Still in process $40,000 +/-
-Local AVIC office already had items that we had planned to acquire with these funds. We had intended to purchase a complete system for our last auction yard, which was disallowed -We continued our efforts, using state resources with cooperative agreement funds, to integrate our brand inspection personnel into this animal health/NAIS activity
-We used hand held devises to capture data then transmitted to our centralized database within 48 hours
This effort captured more premises location data and animal movement data as well
-We estimate that we have added 3 to 4 thousand addresses to our database.

Makes you wonder how Mr. Hansen could not foresee NAIS in Oregon’s future if he was simultaneously actively promoting NAIS!

The document states that the ODA will contact “all livestock groups” to assist them. It says they will “travel to all parts of the state to provide informational meetings, education and training.” The document makes it clear that the ODA is still working on planning equipment and staff needed. However, they have requested more funds from the USDA. From page 12:
Fund Request, Intended Use of Funds
Personnel and Benefits $ 86,000 Personnel to assist with the following activities of the agreement. Work directly with field personnel to provide support and insure quality of data being received into databases in Salem office. Provide informational meetings, education and training. Work with Advisory Committee, auction yard owners and Accredited Veterinarian in relation to the new framework. Enter data into ODA databases.
Travel $ 7,000 Travel when attending auction yards, cattlemen’s meetings and other livestock related functions in order to educate personnel, auction yard owners, producers and veterinarians about the new framework as outlined by USDA. Funds may also be used to send ODA representatives to out-of-state informational meetings
Equipment $ 5,000 Funds used to purchase computers, wireless communication devices, GPS units, portable printers and other devises. Equipment used for data input and verification by regulatory animal health officials and full-time Animal Identification employees.
Supplies $ 2,723 Funds to incidental supplies to maintain electronic equipment used in the field.
Subtotal Request $ 100,723
Basis for indirect charges and matching 17.14%
Indirect Charge $ 17,277
Total Request $118,000
State Matching Funds $ 23,600 20% State matching funds for this project.

I am curious about the $23,600 from state funds. I know for government spending, that’s not a lot, but Oregon is one of the states on the verge of bankruptcy. Does that mean we will have additional taxes and fees to pay? And if so, why aren’t we spending additional taxes on education?

From page 13, a stated goal: Measure the increase in new information gained from data entries completed from May 1, 2010 to March 31, 2011. (List specific kinds of information collected and the number of each entry)

So now we have proof that Oregon is indeed working on a NAIS plan, and has been since at least 2004, even if they have been calling it by a different name. Please share this. Thank you! - Larisa Sparrowhawk and Sharlyn Homola, Oregon Consumers and Farmers Association, www.oregonfarmrights.com