On Wednesday, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) announced it will award $3 million in cooperative agreements to states and tribes for conducting research to develop or test potential solutions for animal identification and automated data collection in support of the National Animal Identification System (NAIS).

Applicants are encouraged to propose research or field-trial projects to:

• enhance the effectiveness of collecting animal animal-identification data in typical production, market and abattoir environments;
• establish identity validation when official identification devices are lost, removed or malfunction;
• conduct economic assessments of animal-identification systems and technologies in typical production, market and abattoir environments; and
• evaluate emerging animal-identification technologies with advanced data-collection systems to ascertain the adaptability of the technology for use in NAIS.

The deadline for application is Dec. 30, 2005. For complete details and an application form, log on to: http://www.aphis.usda.gov/mrpbs/fmd/agreements_announcements.html.