Bernard J. Durkan
Question:91 Mr. Durkan asked the Minister for Agriculture and Food the extent to which traceability procedures are operating in the cattle and sheep industry; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [15104/04]
View answerThursday, 20 May 2004
Questions (91)
Written answers
My Department maintains a fully functional database, the cattle movement monitoring system, for the identification and tracing of bovine animals. It provides general assurances to consumers about the origin and identification of Irish beef. Its primary aim is to provide a comprehensive central database of the origin, identity and life history of cattle but the uses and value of the system have gone well beyond the original design. The system is routinely used for contact tracing for animal diseases such as BSE and brucellosis and to assist in the testing and certification requirements of a variety of schemes such as certification of beef for Russia, determination of age for BSE testing, etc. It has become an integral part of the ante-mortem process at factories and pre-export clearance for live exports. It is employed as a marketing tool for Ireland's beef export industry. It is also used to an increasing extent to provide statistical information to the cattle and beef industry to assist in breeding, production and marketing decisions.
The system is used systematically for livestock premium payments, the establishment of premium entitlements direct from the system and the provision of ongoing data to farmers on the number and status of animals in their herds. The provision of regular printouts to farmers of their herd profile highlights any anomalies in animal origin and location and allows for follow-up of discrepancies. My Department is working with marts to introduce an on-line facility that will instantly update the database when the movement of the animal takes place.
In the wake of the foot and mouth disease crisis of 2001, I introduced the comprehensive national sheep identification system which provides full individual identification and traceability of sheep from farm of origin to carcase and which is designed to be multi-functional, facilitating aspects such as flock management, consumer assurance and disease monitoring and control. The system encompasses flock owners, producers, marts, slaughter plants and others.
Since 21 June 2001 all sheep must be tagged on movement off farm with a tag bearing the country code for Ireland, the flock number of the farm and an individual number. Details of all sheep on farm and of all movements on and off farm must be recorded by flock owners in their flock register. In addition, each consignment of sheep moving off a holding must be accompanied by a dispatch document detailing the holding of dispatch and individual identification numbers of each sheep in the consignment. Under the terms of the national sheep identification system, slaughter plants must record the country code, the flock number and the individual number and this information must be shown on a label on the finished carcase. In the case of imported sheep details from the tag of the country of origin must be recorded on a label on the carcase. All sheep remaining on farms must be tagged at the latest by 15 December. So far over 23 million tags have been processed for flock owners.
Indications from inspections carried out by my Department at slaughter plants and marts, on-farm inspections as well as feedback from other sources, are that there is a high level of compliance with all elements of the national sheep identification system. Where instances of non-compliance are detected or reported, these will be vigorously pursued by my Department.
Both systems will continue to be required for EU identification purposes and to verify cross-compliance of farmers with statutory management requirements in the context of the single payment scheme from 1 January 2005. Ireland's cattle and sheep systems satisfy EU identification obligations and cross-compliance obligations.
The systems have improved and developed over the years and a separate project is under way to develop an up-to-date Internet-based generic computerised animal movement system. The new system will have a multi-species dimension covering cattle, sheep and pigs. It will also integrate with the animal health computer system to provide a single, consistent, source of animal data.