Time is money — and animal welfare

摘要

Despite increased use of electronic identification and record keeping, tracing cattle infected by disease, or suspected to be infected, can take lots of time and boot leather."We have to trace back far enough, which may include multiple movements and touch multiple herds, which then also need to betraced," explains Jack Shere, DVM, U.S. chief veterinary officer. "When electronic ID and electronic record keeping are available, tracing back one level can take place in minutes to hours. Paper trails can take days, weeks or longer." Depending on the disease in question, time spent locating suspect animals can cause devastating losses.