In accordance with EU and national legislation cattle born since 1996 must be properly identified, inter alia, by an eartag in each ear. The basis for this legislation was to provide customer assurance in regard to the traceability of an animal from birth and to ensure consumer confidence in the beef industry. It was decided at that time that an animal bearing only one plastic eartag did not provide sufficient security of identification and that an EU wide system of double tagging, each tag bearing the same unique identification number, would be used to identify every bovine animal. The legislation requires that animals presented for sale must be properly identified at all times and an animal, which is not properly identified, should not be moved from a holding. In these circumstances my Department has no alternative but to require animals presented for sale at marts which are not properly identified to be returned to the holdings of origin.
Exceptionally, and in a small number of circumstances where cattle are presented for immediate slaughter at a factory and where the animal has lost a tag in transit, a veterinary inspector may permit slaughter and certification of the end product. However, this will only occur in circumstances where the other pillars of identification, namely a valid passport, birth registration presence in the on-farm herd register and a check on my Department's on-line database have been verified to ensure traceability.
A recent survey carried out by my Department disclosed that the loss rate of the jumbo sized tag was less than 4 per cent. I have not been provided with any evidence to the contrary.
I would also like to point out that the test requirement for sale of bovine animals is a TB test within the previous 12 months plus a brucellosis test for female animals or bulls over one year old within the previous 30 days. Thus there should rarely be a need to retest an animal which has required a replacement tag.
