Nebraska is the 10th state to register at least 50% of its livestock premises under the National Animal Identification System (NAIS). Meanwhile, USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service reports a total of 439,512 livestock premises have been registered nationwide as of Dec. 31, 2007. That's out of an estimated 1.4 million production premises in the U.S.

Other states that have topped the 50% mark are: Idaho, Indiana, Michigan, Nevada, New York, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, Utah and Wisconsin. West Virginia is at 49.8%, while Delaware, Iowa and Massachusetts have reached 40%. View your state's progress at www.usda.gov/nais.

There you can also view a draft of USDA's “A Business Plan To Advance Animal Disease Traceability,” which was released in mid December 2007. It details recommended strategies and actions to enable existing state/federal regulated and voluntary animal health programs, industry-administered animal health and marketing programs, and various animal ID techniques to work in harmony to enhance animal disease treaceability.