The purpose of this study was to determine awareness, knowledge, and perceptions of the National Animal Identification System (NAIS) among college students in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Texas A&M University. Since the issue of a governmentsponsored electronic national identification system for livestock is relatively new, many pros and cons exist regarding increased biosecurity and increased surveillance by the government. While many adult producer groups have expressed their concerns over the implications of the proposed identification system, little attention has been focused on future producers—youth and college students. This study investigated how college students gathered information about livestock industry issues from mass media or other resources, and how the students’ awareness and knowledge of the identification system influenced their perceptions of the NAIS. The sample population consisted of students enrolled in courses related to animal agriculture and production during the spring 2007 semester at Texas A&M University. Stratified random sampling was used to determine participants, and a total of 92 students responded to the survey. The strata were animal science majors and non-animal science majors, and upperclassmen and lowerclassmen. An online, self-administered survey was used to collect data from the participants. The survey consisted of close-ended and open-ended questions; a pilot study of students with similar majors and classification as the sample established face validity of the instrument. Descriptive statistics, correlations, and one-way ANOVA were used to examine the data. Major findings were that as a group, students were somewhat aware of the NAIS, and were knowledgeable of general NAIS concepts. Students disagreed with the statement that they are well-informed about the NAIS. Students’ perceptions of the NAIS were positively associated with their awareness of the NAIS. Livestock leadership experiences (4-H or FFA membership, livestock show team member, exhibitor experience, and youth livestock organization member) had positive moderate correlations with NAIS awareness. Livestock exhibitor experience had a moderate correlation with perception of the NAIS. University professors, Internet, and family members were preferred information sources. Opinion leaders’ influence as information sources affected students’ awareness and perceptions of the NAIS. Cooperative Extension, private organizations, and university professors were all moderately correlated with students’ awareness of the NAIS. University professors had a positive, yet low correlation with students’ perceptions of the NAIS.

Master of Science / Department of Animal Sciences and Industry / Dale A. Blasi / The proposed U.S. National Animal Identification System (US-NAIS) has generated many concerns among beef cattle producers. The goal of the NAIS is to utilize 48-hour traceback in the event of an animal disease outbreak. The traceback would identify all animals that have had contact with the diseased animal, while linking an animal to its premises of origin. According to the Diffusion of Innovation theory, getting a new idea adopted, even when it has clear advantages, is often very difficult. However, by adopting innovations relatively sooner than others in their system, the theory demonstrates marked benefits for innovators and early adopters, as well as a widening of the socioeconomic gap. In this study beef producer demonstrated understanding, acceptance and adaptability to implement the US-NAIS. Participants for the study were selected in the spring of 2006 from a mailing list of cow-calf producers with more than 100 head of cows. BEEF Magazine provided the mailing list and a random sample of 1,000 producers was selected. The results show a knowledge gap between the proposed system and producer understanding. Producers were also divided on support for the proposed system. When ranking their level of support on a scale of 1 to 6, with 1 being strongly supportive and 6 being strongly opposed, 49% of producers showed some level of support and 48% showed some level of opposition, with a mean of 3.53 (s.d. 1.67). Data also highlights a lack of understanding of the regulations and implementation procedures among producers. The results of this study brought considerable insight into the current practices and perceptions of beef cattle producers, and will be used to develop educational materials to improve their understanding of this proposed program.

Master of Science / Department of Agricultural Economics / Ted C. Schroeder / Electronic animal identification systems are becoming more common in livestock auction markets because of increased numbers of cattle being electronically identified. More cattle are being individually identified because of increasing enrollment in marketing alliances and verification programs. Also, the National Animal Identification System (NAIS) has increased awareness and perhaps use of electronic identification. In this study, individual characteristics of livestock markets were analyzed to determine how they relate to a livestock market operator's views, concerns, and knowledge of the NAIS as well as adoption of RFID reading equipment. Investments in RFID tagging services and RFID reading equipment by livestock markets were estimated and price premiums associated with RFID tagged and preconditioned cattle were estimated. Data were from a national survey of livestock auction markets and cattle transaction data were obtained from three Kansas livestock markets. Auction markets that indicated they currently plan to add a RFID tagging service are likely to have more knowledge of the NAIS program standards, how to adopt the NAIS practices, and the probable costs involved. Managers of facilities that sell a large volume of livestock annually tend to have a higher level of understanding of how to adopt the NAIS practices and be more knowledgeable of the NAIS standards than operators of smallvolume facilities. Managers of markets that have operating RFID reader systems tend to be more understanding of how to adopt the NAIS practices and of costs associated with adopting the NAIS. Livestock market managers tend to be highly concerned that adoption of individual animal identification systems will adversely impact sale speed and tend to view the NAIS as a threat to their business. Large volume facilities, facilities that have registered their premises, and facilities that plan to add a RFID tagging service are more likely to adopt RFID reader systems. Economies of scale exist in RFID system adoption and RFID tagging services for auction markets. Preconditioned and RFID tagged cattle brought a significant premium at only one of three facilities where data were collected.

Master of Science / Department of Agricultural Economics / Kevin C. Dhuyvetter / A Microsoft Excel based budget was developed to find the cost of becoming National Animal Identification Systems (NAIS) compliant in the U.S for beef cow-calf producers. This budget was turned into a stochastic budget by using different distributions for five key variables. From these distributions 10,000 observations were simulated using Latin Hypercube sampling. From the comprehensive budget, a second, more simple budget was constructed for obtaining NAIS cost. This Microsoft Excel based model gives beef cow-calf producers an estimate and a prediction interval associated with the estimated cost of adopting a cattle ID system that is compliant with the National Animal Identification Systems quickly and conveniently, requiring only six inputs. Both the comprehensive and the quick budget are available online. An Ordinary Least Squares regression was estimated using the simulated observations to find marginal effects associated with key variables. The driving factor of total cost per head was eID tag price for operations that tag and eID tag price and chute costs for non-tagging operations. For producers with five or less animals, it was cheaper to hire third parties to tag animals. From the sample data generated, smaller operations pay significantly more than larger operations on a per head basis, as the minimum cost was $2.08 for the larger operations and the maximum cost to small operations was $17.56. The estimated overall average cost per head for the cow/calf industry was $6.26, with a standard deviation of $4.12. Costs were on a per breeding female basis. The Excel spreadsheet budget and model can be downloaded at http://www.agmanager.info/ for producers who wish to estimate NAIS costs specific to their operations.

The primary objective of this study is to evaluate the industry impact of a hypothetical Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) outbreak in the Texas High Plains using alternative animal tracing levels. To accomplish this objective, an epidemiological disease spread model, AUSSPREAD, is used to simulate the FMD outbreak and an economic model is used to examine the impacts of different animal identification levels in cattle. The different levels of animal identification relate to the model?s ability to trace back the subsequent infected and/or dangerous contacts with which the initial outbreak herd has been in contact. The study examines direct disease management costs (slaughter, euthanasia, disposal, surveillance, and cleaning disinfection), forgone income, and other indirect costs (indemnity payments and welfare slaughter) for outbreaks originating from a large beef operation, a feedlot, and a saleyard across subsequent tracing periods from 1 to 10 days. Welfare slaughter and quarantine costs were estimated for the best and worst outbreaks from the feedlot operation. It is noteworthy that total direct costs of a FMD outbreak would be more extensive than the current study's calculations, which only analyzed the direct disease management costs. The increased days to trace dangerous contacts presented overall increases in outbreak losses over each outbreak scenario. Although outcome averages appear insensitive at times under the assumptions applied, the epidemiological model presented the possibility that traceability could reduce the risk of extreme outcomes in respect to the overall distribution of losses. For each cattle operation, the outbreaks stayed consistent or marginally increased with their respective average costs, but their maximum losses rose steadily, across the trace periods examined. The impact of increased traceability and decreased outbreak length can be justified in affecting FMD outbreak costs in a positive manner. The results provide the industry with estimations of different outbreak scenarios which can be used to inform the decision on the NAIS system. Longer tracing periods, larger simulations (by iteration), and further study of the model is necessary in order to more accurately imitate FMD outbreaks within the Texas High Plains and its detrimental effects.