Brattleboro, Vermont (August 16, 2007)…With the recent reoccurrence of foot and mouth disease (FMD) in Great Britain, Holstein Association USA CEO John Meyer says it’s another reminder of the need for a mandatory national animal identification system in the United States.

“Without a national identification system, a similar outbreak of foot and mouth disease in the U.S. could be catastrophic to our nation’s livestock industry,” Meyer said.

Two years ago, Holstein Association USA joined with five other organizations to form the IDairy coalition, the purpose of which is to promote the need for dairy producers to register their premises with state agencies. For more information about IDairy, producers can go to the IDairy Web site, www.idairy.org.

“Without premises registration and animal identification, the U.S. dairy industry will continue to be vulnerable should a disease break out in our country,” Meyer added. “On behalf of Holstein Association USA, I urge all dairy producers to register their premises if they have not already done so as well as to properly identify all animals in their herds.”

For more information, go to Holstein Association USA’s Web site: www.holsteinusa.com.

Holstein Association USA, Inc., www.holsteinusa.com, provides products and services to dairy producers to enhance genetics and improve profitability–ranging from registry processing to identification programs to consulting services. The Association, headquartered in Brattleboro, Vt., maintains the records for Registered Holsteins^SM and represents more than 30,000 members throughout the United States. The Association is also leading the initiative for national animal identification through the National FAIR program.