A cattlemen's organization is opposing a possible phaseout of a national brucellosis surveillance program, fearing that could set the stage for a mandatory, and expensive, livestock identification program in the future.

The Ranchers-Cattlemen Action Legal Fund, or R-CALF, board of directors is recommending to Secretary of Agriculture Mike Johanns that the U.S. Department of Agriculture use the current brucellosis surveillance/vaccination program to accomplish the USDA's objectives for a national animal identification system and a proven trace-back system.

Max Thornsberry, R-CALF vice president, said USDA is moving toward shutting down the federal brucellosis surveillance program in states that have long been brucellosis free. Larry Cooper, a USDA spokesman, said a study group is just now being pulled together to study the question of closing down some states' brucellosis surveillance programs.

"Right now, that's the only trace-back program we have for animal diseases," said Thornsberry, a Missouri-based veterinarian.

R-CALF opposes the possibility of replacing the brucellosis surveillance program with a mandatory national animal identification system because it would be an expensive burden for smaller cattle producers. Currently, the ID system is voluntary, with a goal of getting 25 to 50 percent of the nation's producers on board.

Thornsberry himself uses an animal ID system on his cattle feedlot and finds it a useful way to generate a great deal of data about individual animals that can be used to correct long-term problems.

"I don't think it would be useful for my dad's 300-head operation," said Thornsberry, noting the costs of buying a computer, specialized software, hand-held scanning devices and electronic tags.

Already under economic pressures, Thornsberry said, small producers can't afford such a system that costs thousands of dollars.

"This could put small outfits out of business," he warned.

According to the USDA, the national ID system provides producers with a uniform numbering system for identifying their animals. The individual animal identification number is unique and stays with the animal for its lifetime. This number links the animal to its place of origin, and when combined with animal tracing, links the animal to each location that has been reported for it.

Thornsberry and the rest of the R-CALF board say the brucellosis surveillance program is a "good system now, so why should we scrap it?"

He said he believes USDA will ultimately block sales of animals that are not under the national ID program, and that the 25 to 50 percent voluntary goal is set so that the livestock industry wouldn't be destroyed outright when the program becomes mandatory.

Jim Watson, the state veterinarian for the Mississippi Board of Animal Health and president of the National Assembly of State Animal Health Officials, said in a Friday interview that the brucellosis surveillance program is valuable because it does much more than focus on brucellosis -- it is capable of catching other livestock diseases as well.

"Part of the problem is just the name, 'brucellosis,'" Watson said. He said USDA wants to get more bang for the buck in an era of tight budgets, so USDA is naturally tempted to shut down the brucellosis surveillance program in states that have been brucellosis-free for years.

Watson said it is a challenge for the USDA to continue funding a brucellosis surveillance program in states that don't have brucellosis -- Mississippi has been brucellosis-free since 1998. Ideally, he said, the program should be continued nationwide under a more generic name.