The intra-EU movement of animals is recorded on the Trade Control and Expert System (TRACES), which is the EU-wide online management tool for all sanitary and phytosanitary requirements on intra-EU trade and importation of animals, semen and embryo, food, feed and plants.
My Department uses the TRACES system to record all sheep movements in terms of both imports and exports for the purposes of slaughter, breeding and fattening between Ireland and all other jurisdictions.
The total number of live sheep exported from Ireland to the United Kingdom (including Northern Ireland) for the years 2016 – 2020 are listed below. It should be noted that records for sheep movements on the system are not available prior to 2016.
Year
|
Number of live sheep exports to United Kingdom
|
2016
|
2,216
|
2017
|
1,123
|
2018
|
158
|
2019
|
312
|
2020
|
295
|