The Department of Agriculture shall provide voluntary livestock certification programs when requested by a livestock health committee and others when deemed by the department to be beneficial and appropriate for the livestock industry. The department shall work together with the appropriate livestock producers or groups and the Department of Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences of the University of Nebraska to establish procedures for the certification of participating herds. The Department of Agriculture may maintain a livestock certification registry for each livestock certification program that provides information regarding the voluntary certification program and may include the names of participating livestock producers who have a herd or flock enrolled in the voluntary livestock certification program.

A livestock producer may request certification by completing an application for herd certification on a form provided by the department. The livestock producers who choose to participate in a voluntary livestock certification program shall pay the primary costs of the program, including all on-farm testing costs. The department may use funds appropriated by the Legislature, when available, to offset the costs of disease research and laboratory testing when done in conjunction with a voluntary livestock certification program.

A livestock producer who is listed in a livestock certification registry may provide registry and certification information regarding the livestock herd when selling livestock from the herd.

(1) The department shall remove the name of a livestock producer from a livestock certification registry if the livestock producer has issued false records or statements or has made misleading claims to the department with regard to livestock certification when such records, statements, or claims cause, or could cause, the department to incorrectly include the name of a livestock producer in the certification registry.

(2) Before removal, the department shall notify the livestock producer in writing of the department's intention and the reasons for the intended removal from the registry. The notice shall inform the applicant of his or her right to request an administrative hearing before the director regarding his or her removal from the registry. A request for hearing shall be in writing and shall be filed with the department within thirty days after the service of the notice is made. If a request for hearing is filed within the thirty-day period, at least twenty days before the hearing the director shall notify the livestock producer of the time, date, and place of the hearing. Such proceeding may be appealed as a contested case under the Administrative Procedure Act.

(3) A livestock producer whose name is removed from a livestock certification registry for the first time shall not be eligible to reapply for twelve months from the date of removal. A livestock producer whose name is removed from a registry a subsequent time shall not be eligible to reapply for thirty-six months from the date of removal.

The department and its representatives shall not be held liable for unintentional loss or damage which occurs during certification testing, surveillance and monitoring, disease reporting, or disease research and laboratory testing, or because of certification or lack thereof in a voluntary livestock certification program.

Information collected or published by the department pursuant to sections 54-797 to 54-7,103 shall not disclose the identity of individual livestock producers, except for:

(1) Information published in a livestock certification registry; and

(2) Information collected for the purpose of a voluntary livestock certification program that may be disclosed by the State Veterinarian when, in his or her judgment, failure to disclose the name of a livestock producer or producers could result in the spread of a dangerous, contagious, infectious, or otherwise transmissible disease to and among livestock.

The department may establish procedures to implement sections 54-797 to 54-7,103.