Kansas agropreparedness focuses on cattle safety | 12.13.2006 | 06:06:51 | Views: 5653 | ID: December 13 '06: State officials in Kansas have said they are working to try and protect the cattle industry against the threat of a terrorist attack or other biological hazard which could cripple the US beef supply. The Hutchinson News reported on Wednesday that measures are being put into place which help to monitor the livestock as the cattle pass through Kansas. Using checkpoints along access points, and by monitoring shipments of cattle passing through the state, farmers and state health officials are able to keep track of the current state of health of the livestock, Hutchinson News reported. About 800 to 1,000 trucks carrying cattle pass through Kansas everyday and about 5,500 roads lead out of the state. To help with monitoring operations, the US Department of Agriculture has doled-out about $800,000 to help study cattle tracking while loading and unloading. USDA officials are also developing the National Animal Identification System - a voluntary tracking database to alert officials of a viral or bacterial outbreak within 48 hours. Using radio frequency ear tags, truckers loading and unloading cattle would scan the tags that carry the location of the cattle as well as any other important information which is then sent via cellular signal to a centralized database. The USDA is also granting $440,000 "this spring for the [Kansas State University] and animal health department to test scanning equipment and study the economic impact on sale barns," according to Dale Blasi, a beef specialist working at KSU, the Hutchinson News reported.
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