Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) has approved

the fi rst visual-only 840 animal identifi cation device

for use in the National Animal Identifi cation System

(NAIS). The 840 prefi x is the country code for the

United States. The newly approved device enables

producers who prefer to use a visual-only

840 tag—instead of radio frequency identifi cation

(RFID) 840 tags—to participate in NAIS’ animal

identifi cation component. Producers who use NAIS

840 tags (either visual-only or RFID tags) will be

able to easily provide information about the origin of

their livestock to packers for country of origin labeling

(COOL). Packers can rely on this information for

their origin claims about products, in accordance with

COOL.

The visual-only 840 tag is manufactured by ITW

Fastex of Des Plaines, Ill., and is suitable for use on

cattle and bison. The panel tag provides the option

for producers to have the animal’s herd management

number printed on the tag; the back of the tag (male

piece) is offered in either a button or small panel tag.

ITW Fastex also produces an RFID 840 tag that was

approved for NAIS earlier this year.

With APHIS’ approval of the visual-only 840

tag, there are a total of six approved manufacturers

and 15 available NAIS-approved devices. Other

fi rms manufacturing NAIS-approved devices include

Leader Products, Global Animal Management/Gissler

Technologies, Y-Tex Corporation, Destron Fearing

and Allfl ex USA. A complete list of available tags

and manufacturers is available on the NAIS Web site,

www.usda.gov/nais.

NAIS is a modern, streamlined information system

that helps producers and animal health officials

respond quickly and effectively to animal health

events in the United States. The program, which is

voluntary at the federal level, consists of three parts:

premises registration, animal identifi cation and tracing.

Note to Stakeholders: Stakeholder announcements

and other APHIS information are available on the

Internet. Go to the APHIS home page at

www.aphis.usda.gov and click on the “Newsroom”

button. For additional information about this topic

contact Joelle Schelhaus at (301) 734-0595 or by

e-mail at joelle.r.schelhaus@aphis.usda.gov.