Cattle producer Stephen Blair has been convicted in Albury Local Court, NSW, for incorrectly tagging an estimated 177 cattle at Little Billabong Station near Holbrook with NLIS tags assigned to his Victorian property.
Mr Blair was fined $1800 under the Stock Diseases Act and ordered to pay court costs of $15,500.
"NLIS regulations stipulate that tags cannot be attached to cattle on a different property to which the tags are assigned," NSW Minister for Primary Industries, Ian Macdonald, said.
On 22 June 2006 the incorrectly tagged cattle were sent for sale to Corryong saleyards in Victoria.
If an exotic disease outbreak had occurred at that time and tracing of livestock was required, this simple act could have jeopardised Australia's livestock industries," Mr Macdonald said.
"Mr Blair's actions could have delayed tracing long enough to allow a small outbreak of a devastating disease like foot and mouth to spread throughout the country," he said.
NSW Department of Primary Industries (DPI) agricultural compliance manager, Andrew Sanger, said every stock owner has a responsibility to ensure they play their part in maintaining the integrity of Australia's livestock tracing system.
"To date more than 10 million NLIS devices have been provided for tagging cattle on more than 84,000 NSW properties," Mr Sanger said.
It is vital that all stock owners tag their cattle correctly and report all property to property movements via the NLIS database.
Saleyard and abattoir operators must also record cattle movements, ensuring whole of life traceability for each animal if everyone abides by the regulations.
Meanwhile, Biosecurity Queensland reports that abattoirs and saleyards have noticed a sharp increase in the number of animals with two NLIS devices.
Biosecurity Queensland principal project officer, Bomber Lancaster, said all animals need to be inspected to ensure they not only have an NLIS device but also that there is only one device attached.
"Once an animal has a NLIS device, that device should stay with that animal for the rest of its life," Mr Lancaster said.
"The only time a NLIS device should be removed is when it is not able to be read electronically.
"If this is the case, producers need to replace the tag with a 'post breeder' (orange) coloured device from the property the animal is held on.
"If it is a home-bred animal still on its home property another breeder (white) tag should be applied.
"For introduced animals where a post breeder tag is applied, to link the old replaced tag to the new tag, owners should use the replaced tags feature in their database account.
"People who do not have accounts should contact the NLIS database help team on 1800 654 743 for assistance.
"This way, if the animal has life time traceability, it can be maintained."