States continue to develop and implement an efficient and cost-effective animal disease traceability (ADT) system. This is not an easy task, especially for the beef cattle industry, because of the distribution of cattle in a wide variety of herd sizes. But the cattle industry still will continue to embrace these changes, says Richard Rasby, professor of Animal Science at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
"The industry works hard every day to assure the consumer that beef is a safe and nutritious food source," he says. "ADT is yet another way for the livestock industry to tell the consumer that they are taking all the steps to assure this. If there were a disease in the livestock industry that causes concern about the safety of food, ADT will aid in tracking and taking appropriate steps to assure the consumer."