Top Reasons to Participate in NAIS

Your voluntary participation means that you will be notified quickly when a disease outbreak or other animal health event might put your animals at risk.
Choosing to participate ensures you will receive the information you need - when you need it most - to protect your animals and your investment.
With timely, accurate information, we can contain a disease outbreak or other animal health event more quickly and more effectively.
Rapid disease response limits the impact of the outbreak on your operation - and could even stop disease spread before it reaches your animals.

Rapid disease response reduces the number of producers impacted by a disease outbreak or other animal health event.
Fewer affected producers means less hardship associated with an outbreak or other animal health event- the loss of irreplaceable breeding stock and bloodlines, as well as the animal distress and loss resulting from the disease and the eradication effort.
Rapid response also reduces the economic strain (decreased incomes, lost jobs, loss of animals and livelihoods) on affected communities.
The faster the disease response, the faster an animal disease is isolated, the sooner life gets back to normal for everyone.
Choosing to participate demonstrates your total commitment to doing everything you can to protect your animals and your neighbors.

Choosing to participate in NAIS helps preserve the marketability of your animals - no matter where your markets are.
Prices are dictated by the overall demand for U.S. products. To maintain and protect prices for domestic commodities, it is crucial for international markets to stay open.
NAIS can help quickly define which regions of our country are, and are not, affected by an outbreak - keeping markets open for unaffected producers and preventing unnecessary movement restrictions.
Market demands are increasing in importance, and a number of other countries are already using animal ID systems to gain a competitive edge.
Voluntary participation helps ensure that you and other American producers stay competitive in domestic and international trade.
The greater the level of participation in NAIS, the greater the potential to expand your marketing opportunities at home and abroad.

Federal law protects individuals' private information and confidential business information from disclosure.
USDA maintains only limited premises registration information and will not have direct access to animal identification or movement records.
Animal health officials will only request access to animal movement and location records in the case of an animal disease event.

Participation is your choice.
USDA has no plans to make participation in any component of NAIS mandatory.
Individual States may choose to keep participation voluntary or not, based on local needs.
USDA strongly believes that the best approach to NAIS is a voluntary system driven by the States and the private sector.
You decide - based on your needs - to participate in one, two, or all three components of NAIS.

NAIS is a voluntary program designed by the States, industry, producers, and USDA.
NAIS continues to evolve to meet producer demands.
NAIS works best if the States, industry, and producers actively shape and use the program.
Participation and input from producers is critical to ensure NAIS makes sense for everyone.