Cattle Disease Traceability Continues Advancing

Multiple state cattlemen’s organizations from major beef producing regions have partnered together to form U.S. CattleTrace, a disease traceability initiative.  The goal is to develop a national infrastructure for disease traceability and encourage private industry’s use of the infrastructure for individualized management practices.  The new U.S. CattleTrace initiative combines the efforts of CattleTrace, which includes livestock associations in Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, Kentucky, Oregon and Washington, as well as traceability pilot projects underway in Florida and Texas.

Brandon Depenbusch, CattleTrace board of directors chairman, says the partnership “will be a catalyst to build upon the CattleTrace foundation we established the past few years.”

In late August 2018, CattleTrace Inc. was formally established as a private, not-for-profit corporation to securely maintain and manage the data collected as part of the disease traceability pilot project. Volunteer leaders from each of the partner organizations have agreed to a set of guiding principles for U.S. CattleTrace.

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