Wyoming livestock producers strongly favor an animal disease track-back program in the state, but deep division and uncertainty persists regarding whether such an effort should be mandatory.

In a recent survey prepared by the Wyoming Center for Business and Economic Analysis on behalf of the Wyoming Livestock Board, 84 percent of respondents said there should be an animal disease trace-back program.

At the same time, 32.5 percent indicated a program should be voluntary, 28.8 percent said mandatory, and 38.7 percent said they didn't know.

More than 68 percent said such a system should be managed by the state, compared to only 6.9 percent for the federal government. Eighteen percent didn't know.

"When it all comes into a nutshell, the truth is we gotta worry about what consumers want," Jim Schwartz, director of the Wyoming Livestock Board, said.

In a state program, Schwartz said he would tilt toward mandatory participation whereby every food animal produced would have an ID and could be traced quickly.

"Nobody likes to be told what they have to do, but I think for the health of our industry and the long-term of quality food safety, I would say we'll probably lean towards somewhat of a mandatory program," he said.

He also favors a strong federal-state partnership. "I'm not trying to start something totally separate from NAIS," Schwartz said.

The National Animal Identification System, or NAIS, is an effort to identify the origins and trace the movements of livestock quickly in the event of a disease outbreak.

Critics of the federal program argue that it is excessively intrusive, of dubious economy benefit, and duplicates state brand and health programs.

But Schwartz said federal involvement is important: "These diseases don't stop at state lines."

Schwartz said only about 21 percent of premises are currently identified in Wyoming through NAIS and that number needs to increased dramatically in order to mount an effective response to a disease outbreak.

"We're got really high-quality livestock in Wyoming, and we need to make sure we protect the marketability of that livestock," he said.

Jim Magagna, executive vice president of the Wyoming Stock Growers Association, said his group has long been opposed to a mandatory national ID system but has taken no position of such a state program.

"I suspect opposition to a [mandatory] state program would be somewhat less but still significant," he said.

Magagna said many ranchers seem to be opposed to a mandatory program, but they also believe a voluntary program won't work.

He said it might be possible to have a state-only trace-back program if other states had a similar program and there was some sort of central information system available to federal officials.

"I think it's doable, but it certainly creates some additional challenges," he said.

A state system also leaves open the question of what form the program would take and what it would cost individual ranchers, Magagna added.

"Speaking personally," he said, "I feel as strong as anyone about not wanting to have another federal program. On the other hand, if a disease program is going to work and work fairly, there's some real challenges in trying to make it work if it isn't a federal program, or at least, doesn't have a federal coordinating element to it."

There are about 7,660 livestock producers in the state, according to the Livestock Board. Of these, 93 percent already use some form of animal identification system. A combination of brands and ear tags is the most common.

Business Editor Tom Mast can be reached at tom.mast@trib.com, or call 307-266-0574.