An automated national system for tracking animals faces countless challenges and is still years away from being operational. Nonetheless, some experts are pushing the U.S. to quicken the pace in light of the initial positive test earlier this month in Ames, Iowa, of a cow for bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), or mad cow disease.

A sample of the cow has been sent to a special lab in the U.K. for final confirmation, according to a statement from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Though the USDA has been actively working on a program since 2003, the U.S. continues to lag behind beef producing rivals such as Japan, Australia or the U.K.

"The bottom line is that the program needs to move ahead more quickly than it is," said DeeVon Bailey, an agro-economist at Utah State University in Logan, Utah. Ultimately,"If additional cases of BSE are confirmed in the U.S., it will provide additional incentives to accelerate the implementation of the program."

The project, dubbed the National Animal Identification System (NAIS), was officially launched after the discovery of a case of mad cow disease in Washington in 2003. The agency has set a July 6 deadline for public input as it drafts a strategic plan and program specifications.

So far, users question whether the project is adequately funded and express concern about the ability to choose the right technology for the effort.

Although there is no official estimate, some observers have pegged the long-term cost of the NAIS project at US$600 million-plus. Cattle ranchers expect it to be based primarily around Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags, though the USDA says that other technologies such as optical scanning are also being researched.

Currently, a fully operational system is slated to be online in 2009, when participants will be required to have both their premises and animals logged into a national database that will enable a complete trace within 48 hours.

The effort to reach that goal still faces considerable problems, industry insiders say.

To date, adequate funding for the program hasn"t been set aside, said Jess Petersen, director of government relations at the Ranchers-Cattlemen Action Legal Fund, United Stockgrowers of America (RCALF-USA), a trade and marketing group based in Washington, D.C.

An Agriculture Department spokeswoman said the government appropriated $33 million for the project in 2005, with another $33 million included in the White House"s 2006 budget. She added that the agency will let those in the industry decide on the technology used in the system.

"There is still a major debate going on in the industry," Robert Fourdraine, chief operating officer of the Wisconsin Livestock Identification Consortium and a member of the NAIS subcommittee, said in an e-mail. "Certain groups feel USDA is going too fast, while others think too slow."

Participants in the effort to create NAIS come from every state, and include various industry associations and even cattle-raising Native American tribes, said the USDA spokeswoman.