SelectVAC and AgInfoLink partner to enhance cattle health documentation
Aug 2, 2006 5:36 PM
Pfizer Animal Health has announced a partnership with AgInfoLink to offer age and source verification along with the Pfizer SelectVAC® program. Now available, SelectVAC allows producers to market their calves to a wide range of buyers, raise calves that can fit export verification standards, and protect the confidentiality of herd data.
Introduced in 1996, SelectVAC consists of vaccination and management practices to prepare calves for weaning and shipping, helping ensure delivery of high-health cattle to buyers. Now cattle also can be age and source verified through AgInfoLink's USDA-approved Process Verified Program (PVP). Based upon ISO 9000 standards, the PVP will verify age and source and provide auditing to ensure confidence and enable compliance with beef export requirements.
"We are seeing very good participation in our regular 'value-added' calf sales—where all calves are preconditioned, carrying RFID tags, and many are age and source verified," says Mark Harmon of the Joplin Regional Stockyards, adding that they have sold an estimated total of 40,000 age- and source-verified cattle since early December. "Participation in age and source verification is trending upward, and there is excellent value in it for producers—we're seeing an extra $15 to $25 premium for a 500-lb. calf."
"With SelectVAC, we're starting with a proven, credible program with a strong foundation," says Glenn Smith, U.S.A. Country Manager for AgInfoLink. "When we further strengthen that program with verified traits—like age and source verification—a great preconditioning program just becomes better."
"The latest discovery of BSE in the U.S. shows a tremendous need in the marketplace to identify the age and source of our cattle—a critical component in expanding export opportunities for U.S. beef," says Pierre Bertrand, Marketing Manager, Cattle Biologicals, at Pfizer Animal Health. "The technology to offer age and source verification is now logistically achievable, and with AgInfoLink we can offer a reliable and robust system."
A PVP ultimately gives producers a wide range of options to market their animals. Instead of being bound by one packer's or feedlot's specific Quality Systems Assessment (QSA), or the need to have paperwork for multiple QSAs, producers can maintain one set of paperwork that satisfies multiple packer or feedyard QSAs. As a result, a producer has the flexibility to market calves to multiple feedyards or packers without the need for those packers or feedyards to conduct follow-up audits on the producer.
"Because Pfizer Animal Health and AgInfoLink have incorporated the audit process up front, there is no additional audit requirement as animals move through the production chain with a PVP," points out Pierre Bertrand. "A PVP protects confidentiality for producers. They can know they won't have to share private or sensitive information about their cattle or operation."
Longmont, Colorado-based AgInfoLink has a proven track record in the database management and privacy fields, and has been working in individual animal ID since 1997. AgInfoLink received USDA approval for its Process Verified Program in 2005.
"Pfizer is excited to partner with a company that is as committed to animal identification as we are," Bertrand says. "The quality of AgInfoLink's offering and their hands-on support will help Pfizer Animal Health better serve producers enrolled in the SelectVAC program."
For more information visit www.selectvac.com. For a listing of other USDA- approved PVP programs visit http://processverified.usda.gov.
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