The Iowa Department of Agriculture has announced that during May the final round of letters will be sent to farmers who have previously registered a livestock premises, as an effort to update the Iowa Premises Registration database. All information in the database is confidential and only used to contact producers in case of an animal disease outbreak.

Farmers are asked to respond to the letter, and either confirm the information is correct or respond with their updated information. Letters are being sent to producers in Poweshiek, Ringgold, Sac, Scott, Shelby, Sioux, Story, Tama, Taylor, Union, Van Buren, Wapello, Warren, Washington, Wayne, Webster, Winnebago, Winneshiek, Woodbury, Worth and Wright counties this month.

“Being able to quickly identify any and all premises during an animal disease outbreak is a vitally important step as we work to stop the spread of the disease and then eliminate it,” says Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig. “We’ve had a very good response from farmers to this effort, and we encourage anyone who gets a letter this month, or has received one previously and hasn’t yet responded to take the time to contact our department and make sure all their information is up to date.”

All Iowa livestock farmers are urged to make sure all locations where they have livestock have a premises identification number (PIN) and to make sure their information is up to date.

Farmer info confidential
What are the benefits for producers to register their premises? This system is confidential, and it is a multistep process, the first of which is premises registration, Naig says. After the livestock or poultry producers receive a PIN number, they can then move on to the next step of animal identification.

Registration provides IDALS with essential contact information that can be accessed in case of an animal health emergency to speed notification. Faster notification equals faster eradication and recovery from a disease outbreak. There is no cost to farmers to register livestock facilities.

Farmers can complete or renew their premises registration by completing the form found on the department’s website and submitting the signed form to the department.

If farmers have questions, they can contact the Iowa Department of Agriculture animal ID coordinator at 888-778-7675 or by email at [email protected]. More information is available on USDA’s animal disease traceability web page. Iowa currently has more than 31,500 premises registered.

Source: Iowa Department of Agriculture