Electronic ID of sheep is fundamentally flawed, says Fiona Hall MEP

9.00.00am GMT Tue 24th Feb 2009

"Electronic tagging for sheep will not help control animal disease and will be very costly," says Fiona Hall.

Lib Dem MEP Fiona Hall has joined a cross-party group of MEPs in signing a resolution in support of sheep farmers in Northumberland.

The resolution opposes the introduction of compulsory individual movement recording and electronic sheep identification planned for December 2009, which has caused a massive outcry from sheep farmers across the region.

Fiona has written to the Secretary of State for Rural Affairs, Hilary Benn MP, asking him to consider introducing sheep and goat identification tagging on a voluntary basis only, so the system does not place overbearing costs on farmers.

"It is my belief that compulsory sheep tagging will cause unnecessary burdens for farmers. Test runs of the scheme have shown up implementation difficulties, practical problems and high costs - with unproven benefits," said Fiona.

"Current recording systems are simple, efficient and cost effective and already help control animal disease.

"The UK and the Republic of Ireland are the largest sheep producers in the EU. British farmers need any new identification system to work effectively but this one is fundamentally flawed."

The full text of the resolution reads:

Proposal for a RESOLUTION of all European sheep breeding organisations

MEPs and European sheep and goat breeders call on the Commission and the Council of Agriculture Ministers to review the introduction of compulsory individual movement recording and electronic sheep identification system, as planned for 31.12.2009, because of implementation difficulties high costs and unproven benefits.

EU Council regulation 21/2004 requires individual identification and recording of sheep and goat movements across Europe from 1st January 2010. To achieve this member states will be required to implement Electronic identification of their sheep flock.

Existing regulations on sheep and goat identification have proved to be perfectly adequate to ensure traceability and to control disease. Electronic Identification and individual movement recording far exceed what is genuinely needed.

European sheep breeding organisations therefore recommend that the Electronic Identification and individual recording movement of sheep and goats to be introduced on a voluntary basis only. With the compulsory obligation delayed until there is sufficient evidence that the system will not place an overbearing cost on producers.

Justification:

· The current ID and batch recording system, combined with EU and domestic movement standstills are simple, efficient and cost effective measures which help the control of animal disease. Evidence shows that compulsory EID and individual recording would not deliver significant improvement in animal disease control but would incur a massively disproportionate regulatory and financial cost.

· EID has significant practical problems that prevent the effective operation of EID in extensive livestock systems and within climatic conditions commonly experienced in northern Europe. There are also issues surrounding compatibility and the general IT literacy levels within the industry.

· The additional requirements associated with the regulation such as maintaining individual identities in a flock register are onerous and undeliverable in extensive systems due to tag loss, incomplete gathering etc and offer no benefit in disease control terms.