I am putting this in General Questions because I am looking for some further information about this article. I know it would fit in The Pit, as another, “look at how stupid the Homeland Security Department is,” or in Great Debates as another, “ The Homeland Security Department is a joke.” But from this thread I would really like to only hear from folks who might know anything about this new program and why it was really implemented.
The article is about the Thoroughbred industry putting microchips in horses for indentification purposes. I know that horseracing uses the term “ringer” for substituting a very good horse for a bad horse to cash big tickets. So I can see the desire to use technology to ensure this no longer happens.
But this part of the article really confuses me:
"The program is part of the National Animal Identification System’s effort to quickly locate and identify infected and exposed animals during disease outbreaks. The funding originates from the Department of Homeland Security and is part of a national effort to prepare the country for bioterrorism assault.”
My only guess is that this is the usual political manuvering of money to from one source to another source to score some points with those who benefit from it. But if that is not the case, I would really like to know more about this, as I find the whole thing very odd.
I am hoping it is just a case of the horsemen wanting to implement the program and found a way to have someone else pay for it.
Does anyone know anything about this and how it came about? Our Thoroughbreds can’t really be targeted for some sort of bioterrism attack can they? http://news.bloodhorse.com/viewstory.asp?id=35278
Racehorses often have to be moved in and out of quarantine when they travel for big races or breeding, and they’re very delicate animals. It seems like the routine movement of horses through quarantine zones would be an ideal scenario in which to practice that particular type of medically-motivated tracking. Because they move around so much, epidemics spread quickly from race sites to breeding farms. I know that in Maryland we recently had problems with equine encephalitis, and several race tracks were closed for weeks (losing lots of money) while the epidemic was contained. Similarly, diseases like equine herpes and Kentucky Potomac Horse Fever can spread quickly and kill millions of dollars of racing stock in days. Preventing or minimizing these losses seems like a desirable goal, especially if any of the diseases can be transmitted to humans.
The “bioterror assault” scenario doesn’t seem like a huge risk to me – all terrorism attacks are extremely low-risk compared to, say, car crashes or firearms accidents. I thought it was ridiculous that the money came from DHS and not, for example, Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Agriculture, or the Department of Commerce. Then I read another article on the same subject and saw this:
The National Animal Identification System has a homepage; you can follow the link to find out more than you ever wanted to. It seems like the goal of the program is epidemic management (think “bird flu”) rather than bioterror reaction – but obviously the two share many similar goals.
We can debate whether horse breeders really need Federal assistance when stud horses can draw fees in the hundreds of thousands of dollars… but I think I’ve answered the factual aim of the OP.
Thanks so much for the reply. That does make sense when you look at it as a way to practice and learn how to track animals. I guess since the horsemen in California were wanting it anyway, they figured they might as well start with them. I don’t see the Kentucky horsemen jumping on this quite so quickly, so maybe some positive findings of the program can be used to convince the others to get on board when the time comes.
And I would guess the cost will eventually go to the breeders if the horses are to be followed before they are sold. The sale of a couple of those $11.7 million dollar yearlings could cover a lot of microchips.
Thanks again. I can leave becoming a bioterrorist target off the long list of things I already worry about concerning the future of my foals.
The individual animal identification push in the U.S. really began with the Mad Cow disease outbreak in England. The original intent was to be able to trace back to farm of origin animals entering the food chain. The reason was to be able to figure out just where a cow with Mad Cow Disease (or TB or Brucellosis) came from and what other animals it had contact with.
Sheep and goats were the first species targeted as scrapie in sheep is caused by the same type of organism as Mad Cow. Plus, there are a lot fewer sheep farms than cattle farms, so no doubt they wanted to start small. Sheep and goat farms now have to register with a Federal Agency if they want to market their animals comercially and each animal must bear an official tag.
After 9/11 when Homeland security was organized and money began pouring into this area, the bioterrorist threat got shoe-horned on top of the public health intent. The Anthrax scare sealed the deal. Certainly, if someone brought a vial of Foot and Mouth virus into the country and infected a few herds of animals somewhere it would pretty much stop animal agriculture in this country and cost untold billions of dollars. So, theoretically there’s a threat out there.
Horses have pretty much come along for the ride here - most state departments of animal health would like to know where the horses in the state are kept, but they generally don’t enter the food chain and they either are not susceptible to the agents one typically thinks of as bioterror bugs or die of them so quickly they wouldn’t be very effective at causing an epidemic.
Long story short - the microchipping isn’t designed to keep those particular horses safe. It’s being done as a result of the movement whose aim is I.D.ing all livestock.
Not all horse breeders draw in hundreds of thousands of dollars from stud fees. Such as the case in anything, there are an elite few at the top making big money, surrounded by a vastly larger pool of people dealing in $5k-10k claimers.
There is actually an outcry against this by many smaller, hobbyhorse and (hobby farm) operations as the microchips are expensive, as are the penalties for failing to register your animals. Granted, many of the websites Ive read about the plan are reactionary websites, but from what I understand it is necessary to notify the USDA EVERY TIME an animal is removed from the premises. If any animal is discovered with a disease (ie Equine Infectious Anemia), then according to what Ive read (again I dont want to stake my life on these claims) that all animals within a certain radius will automatically be slaughtered.
I’m not sure how a spreading a horse-killing disease could really be a bio-terror mechanism, other than making a lot of really sad people. Has anyone read more into the actual specifics of what folks will be required to do once NAIS is implemented? I will try to find more of the anti-Nais information.