The purpose of the animal disease traceability (ADT) cooperative agreement is to support a partnership between kentucky department of agriculture, USDA aphis, and the cattle industry in kentucky to…

The Department of Agriculture Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service awarded the Kentucky Department of Agriculture a cooperative agreement for $235,191 on April 1, 2026, under the Plant and Animal Disease, Pest Control, and Animal Care program (CFDA 10.025).

The award funds the Animal Disease Traceability (ADT) initiative, a partnership between APHIS, Kentucky Department of Agriculture, and the state cattle industry to maintain livestock traceability for current animal health threats including tuberculosis and to build preparedness against foot and mouth disease. The agreement spans six objective categories, with primary activities centered on administering official identification devices. Kentucky Department of Agriculture receives an annual allotment of approximately 130,000 RFID tags from USDA Veterinary Services, records their distribution, and ships them to producers, livestock markets, and veterinarians for replacement heifers retained in Kentucky herds. KDA staff oversee quarterly reporting of tag distribution to the Kentucky Herds Database and the national database, conduct outreach at livestock events, and perform inspections and audits of official tagging stations including veterinary clinics and buying stations. KDA collaborates with the Kentucky Cattlemen's Association, Kentucky Dairy Development Council, Kentucky Pork Producers, and Kentucky Sheep and Goat Association to assist with tag distribution as tag managers.

Performance runs from April 1, 2026 through March 31, 2027 in Kentucky.

The purpose of the animal disease traceability (ADT) cooperative agreement is to support a partnership between kentucky department of agriculture, USDA aphis, and the cattle industry in kentucky to promote and sustain traceability for current animal health concerns such as tuberculosis, and to bolster preparedness against such challenges as foot and mouth disease (FMD), which could be devastating to the state and national economy. Alone, the state can provide the backbone of a defense and traceability, but maintaining national consistency requires involvement, support and the local contribution of veterinary services (VS). This involvement includes strategically placed human resources employed by VS and KDA, but also funding to meet objectives as described in subsequent paragraphs. Activities to be performed: there are six objective categories in this cooperative agreement. Objective 1: administration of official identification devices: USDA VS provides an allotment of radio frequency identification (RFID) tags to each state each year. The allotted number varies, but in kentucky is generally approximately 130,000 tags for the kentucky department of agriculture will receive, record, and ship requested tags to producers, livestock markets, and veterinarians. These tags are predominately used for replacement heifers that will be retained in the kentucky herd. KDA will report quarterly all tags distributed and this information will be tracked in KY herds database as well as the national database. KDA staff will participate in livestock events to distribute RFID tags. KDA will collaborate with KY cattlemen's association, KY dairy development council, KY pork producers, and KY sheep and goat association for their assistance with tag distribution as tag managers. There are certain entities, such as veterinary clinics, livestock markets and buying stations, that serve as official tagging stations. KDA will administer those tags by inspections and audits to ensure accountability and compliance. KDA field staff will work alongside market personnel to facilitate the use of RFID technology and will provide training to staff at the markets to capture data chute side with RFID reading devices. KDA will report quarterly number of tags distributed by type, number of events where tags were distributed, number of tags applied forms recei VED from practitioners, and number of electronic recap sheets received from stockyards. Official identification distribution is maintained in the usaherds database. Usaherds has the capability to search animal IDS in many capacities including AIN distribution, TE STS/vaccinations, certificates of veterinary inspection, and market sales records. Rfids applied at the stockyard will be scanned into an electronic recap sheet, which they electronically submit to KDA for importation into usaherds database. Veterinarians and producers are required to submit forms with a record of all official IDS applied and this data is uploaded into usaherds. Individuals are not furnished additional tags if tags applied forms have not been submitted. Distribution of tags sent out of kentucky office of state veterinarian (OSV) is monitored and totaled by the ADT coordinator via excel database. Objective 2: electronic records: KDA OSV has several (>30) electronic readers that were purchased in previous cooperative agreement cycles and these units are strategically assigned to different livestock markets and market veterinarians. KDA encourages all market veterinarians and private practitioners with state-issued RFID readers to use electronic CVIS and forms. KDA will encourage all market veterinarians to scan and submit rfids in a format that can be uploaded into usaherds. In addition, KDA will encourage practitioners to utilize electronic data capture and submission of brucellosis and tuberculosis records. KDA continues to explore technology to electronically capture RFID data at livestock events and has provided leadership in the national context in this effort, and they are increasingly utilizing mapping technology for visual display of animal movement. KDA reports quarterly the number of RFID readers distributed, number of meetings with practitioners for training on data submission, and number of TB and brucellosis forms submitted electronically. The KDA website will feature approved electronic CVI options available to kentucky veterinarians as well as outreach materials regarding animal disease traceability. In addition, the cooperator will increase private practitioner knowledge and utilization of the new usaherds vetcvi program which is a new and novel platform for electronic tracking of cattle movement. IT is the goal of KDA to have all large market sales reported electronically so records can be transferred to usaherds database. Finally, KDA will report quarterly the number of KY veterinarians utilizing electronic CVIS, and number of livestock markets submitting multipurpose tags applied forms electronically. Objective 3: information sharing: usaherds is the primary source of official ID data collection and includes all regulatory disease program documentation. The civet system is a data entry system used to increase the efficiency of data entry. Paper certificate of veterinary inspections (CVIS) are entered into the civet system, and the records are batched and uploaded into usaherds. KDA staff will be present at and perform livestock health entry inspections of all livestock entering the kentucky expo center LOC ated in louisville KY. After reviewing CVI for compliance IT is scanned for the record. Usaherds receives electronically messaged data from one of two kentucky national animal health laboratory network (NAHLN) laboratories as well as the most used electronic certificate of veterinary inspection (CVI) platforms, including vetcvi, global vetlink, vetsentry and vsps. KDA will work with other kentucky NAHLN laboratory to get them connected to usaherds. As of january 2022, KY usaherds is set up to message data to animal health events repository (AHER). Upon request, KDA will share animal identification information for actual and exercise animal traces with other US states and tribes via telephone, email, and on exportable spreadsheets from usaherds. Upon request KDA can provide an excel spreadsheet from herds to KY aphis VS epidemiologist. KDA will report quarterly the number of CVIS reviewed at livestock events; the number of import CVIS, the number of export CVIS, the number of electronic CVIS, and the number of tag traces performed. Objective 4: outreach and communication: KDA personnel will participate in producer, veterinarian and market conferences/meetings to share information and conduct training on the ADT rule and RFID/electronic CVI use. This will include participation in the usaherds conference, and in the ilia (international livestock identification) conference. KDA to participate in trainings and workshops conducted by other states or regions regarding ADT program. KDA OSV will staff information booths at the annual kentucky veterinarian medical association (KVMA) meeting, kentucky cattlemen's association meetings, farm bureau annual meeting and 8-10 producer/practitioner-oriented events to distribute official ID and outreach materials across the state that are held throughout the year. The cooperator will provide 25% salary and benefits for an ADT coordinator. This individual will facilitate at least one ADT advisory committee meeting a year and will seek input as needed from stakeholders and will conduct training with KDA field staff and market vets on RFID technology and ADT uses. In addition, the ADT coordinator will set up training courses with inspectors, field staff, and veterinarians for electronic CVI software, which will be available on the KDA OSV website. As mentioned above, the KDA ADT staff will travel out of state additional training on usaherds to increase proficiency in use. KDA will report quarterly the number of outreach events, training and meetings attended. The cooperative agreement will provide travel and registration fees for in-state travel to include attendance and participation as kentucky hosts the southern animal health association (SAHA) conference in louisville in june, 2026. Other travel supported will be to off-set costs for 22 individuals to attend and perform inspections at the kentucky shows and fairs events, including the kentucky state fair and the north american international livestock exposition. Objective 5: national priority tracing exercises: aphis veterinary services will facilitate trace exercises at random throughout the year, and KDA will be evaluated on their response performance. Feedback will include corrective actions that they will be accountable for. Kentucky department of agriculture will continually seek ways to improve electronic data capture and reporting methodologies to assist with the regular trace exercises and the actual trace events. Compliance issues will be reported promptly to USDA aphis VS avic. Objective 6: compliance and enforcement of traceability regulations: this cooperative agreement will provide for a percentage (10%) of salar Y for 5 KDA enforcement officers. These officers will issue letters of warnings and notice of violations to producers, practitioners, stockyards and dealers for non-compliance issues. The number of warning letters and notices of violations will be reported to USDA quarterly. KDA will continue to work with other states on enforcement actions related to official identification and interstate M ovement. KDA enforcement officers will attend the international livestock identification association annual conference to collaborate with other states. Private veterinarians and producers are required to submit tags applied forms for all official IDS applied and this data will be uploaded into usaherds KDA will regularly contact tag managers and accredited veterinarians to ensure traceability of tags distributed and proper reporting. All non-compliance issues will be documented in written documentation. In addition, individuals who do not provide tags applied forms will not be provided with additional tags. The deliverables and expected outcomes of this cooperative relationship would include data to demonstrate livestock movement in national and international commerce. IT is expected to see demonstrated growth in the implementation of electronic tracing technology and placement of RFID tags in replacement animals. The activities outlined in outreach and communication are clearly outlined and should be promptly and accurately reported in the quarterly performance tracker. Regular trace exercises will be initiated by aphis VS and will measure proficiency and growth in decreasing trace response time. The importance of supply chain traceability is understood and embraced by virtually every prod uction system in the world. Whatever is produced, sourced or shipped to, from, or within the united states should be accompanied by transparency, and accountability. The impact of this cooperative program is wide and includes traceability metrics that affect all livestock species. The cattle industry is the most visible commodity group of kentucky livestock and includes a herd inventory of 910,000 head. These are mostly beef cows, and >90% of the calves raised from these cows go to mid-western states for feeding, finishing and slaughter. The other major fraction of the COW inventory is dairy, representing milk and milk products that go to other parts of the region. In summary, kentucky's livestock commodities, whether swine, small ruminant, cattle, dairy, or even alternative livestock production units stand near the center of the national economy both in geography and in commerce. Animal disease traceability is an essential and cost-effective investment for protection of these industries. Budget: recipient personnel and fringe-- $93,452.11; recipient travel including attending relevant conferences-- $11,704; supplies-- $1,280; contractual: usaherds database and CVI system M & O-- $128,754.89. This award has been considered under the ocio AAR process pursuant to their recent memorandum. This agreement is under AAR FY26 aphis adtis state agreements submission ID: ASUB0100476; approval ID: AAR0002052