Mad-cow case highlights need for tracking system

The cow that had the disease has been difficult to trace.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Investigators may never figure out where the Alabama cow with mad-cow disease was born and raised, in part because the United States lacks a livestock tracking system the Bush administration promised two years ago.
After the first case of mad-cow disease in December 2003, the government pledged to get a nationwide program into place quickly so officials could track cows, pigs and chickens from their birth to the dinner table.
Today, however, the system is a long way off.
Alabama officials saw the need firsthand last week as they tried to discover where the infected cow came from.
The animal had no ear tags, tattoos or brands, and spent less than a year on the farm where she died.
The trail seems to have gone cold at an auction where she was sold last year.
"We need an animal ID program in this country so it will help our industry and help our farmers when we have these kind of situations," the state's agriculture commissioner, Ron Sparks, said Friday in Montgomery, Ala.
In an ideal situation
Ideally, a cow such as the one in this case would get the same number throughout its life.
Farms, sale barns and feedlots would have unique numbers, too.
Different technologies, including radio-frequency tags, retinal scans or even DNA of a cow's eye could help with the tracking.
The goal is to pinpoint a single animal's movements within 48 hours after mad cow or a different disease is discovered.
It is not an easy task in a country with 9 billion chickens, pigs and cows.
"We have a lot of protein being raised in this country," Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns said last week.
"It's something that we want to give the industry some time to adjust to and prepare for."
Johanns promised last May that the tracking system would be in place, run by the government and with mandatory participation, by 2009.
The goal of 2009 has not changed, though some details have.
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