LANSING – Advanced technology is playing a bigger role in Michigan's food supply as electronic identification tags continue to replace the old tag and tattoo process for cattle.

All cattle moving off farms must have electronic ID tags in their left ear by March 1, 2007, as part of a plan to eliminate bovine tuberculosis in the Lower Peninsula.

Bovine TB is an infectious disease that primarily affects cattle, but other animals can become infected also. It’s spread by the exchange of respiratory secretions, or nasal droplets left in food or in animal facilities from infected animals.

Humans can contract bovine TB by drinking infected and unpasteurized milk or by exposure to the bacteria through cuts and wounds.

The disease is being spread to cattle primarily through the deer population, according to Dr. Steven Halstead, the state veterinarian.

"The cattle come along and eat the same food that the deer have been eating," he said.

Previously, a plastic metal tag or tattoo was required to identify individual animals. Electronic identification uses a radio frequency device marked with a number unique to each animal.

The electronic tag will speed up location and tracing of the livestock from farm to market. It will also ensure that the animals sold between testing can be quickly tracked down, if needed, according to the state Department of Agriculture.

Electronic tagging began in Michigan in November 2001. Since then, more than 40 percent of Michigan farmers have voluntarily used them.

"Electronic ID will help track the movement and pace of cattle that have been in a herd that has a known infected animal," said Halstead. "We need to be able to follow them to the farms that they move to and also trace backwards to animals that have moved into those farms where the infected animal was.”

The electronic tags will cost $2 each, and the applicator for the tags costs $20.

"The tags cost less than the cost of the vaccine," said Bridget Patrick, coordinator of the state’s Bovine TB Eradication Project. "Electronic ID speeds up the tracking process. What used to take weeks, sometimes months, can be done in a day."

Many electronic tags are used on 4-H dairy cows, according to the Northwest Farm Bureau. The bureau chapter covers both Leelanau and Grand Traverse counties.

“The tags are kind of like a GPS system,” said Karen Alma, county administrative manager for the Northwest Michigan Farm Bureau. “Some animals, especially a lot of steers, get loose. And we can’t have an animal moving out of a TB area and infecting other areas.

“The whole idea is to keep the bovine TB under control and the only way to do that is to know the origination of the animal and which herd it came from,” she said.

More than 5,000 Michigan cattle premises have received more than 605,816 electronic tags so far.