Border Cattle Tracking Goes Electronic

Cattle records are going digital at the southern border as imports resume.

New Mexico veterinarian Samantha Holeck says most records are now electronic as cattle move through the import process. When cattle are sorted on the American side and a new lot is assembled, those animals must carry an individual ID recorded on the health certificate or Certificate of Veterinary Inspection that travels with them. Before, she said, import paperwork only listed a range of numbers, not individual IDs, because those records were not electronic.

Holeck said the shift also changes what gets attached to cattle ears. The older process used a blue metal clip applied when animals were tested for TB. "The metal clip sometimes causes more damage to the ear than the electronic ID," she said. "Some of those animals were getting rejected strictly because of the injury from the blue metal clip." She added that moving to electronic IDs has reduced the number of ear tags used.

The USDA reports more than 2,200 drone flights across Texas since June to monitor for New World screwworm.