The obligatory recording of the individual identification code of the sheep and goats born before 1 January 2010 when these animals are moved will be postponed until the end of 2014.

This follows the endorsement of the Member States experts of the Commission draft presented at the Standing Committee on the Food Chain and Animal Health on 6 December.

The Commission will adopt this change formally in the coming weeks, which will significantly reduce the administrative burden placed on keepers of such animals and will provide further flexibility enlarging the transitional period for implementation of the rules on electronic identification of small ruminants.

These new rules will apply from 1 January 2012. Electronic identification is only mandatory for animals born after 31 December 2009 and therefore many animals born before 1 January 2010 are only identified with conventional non-electronic tags. Manual recording of the non-electronically identified sheep is burdensome as compared with the easier automatic recording of the electronically identified sheep.

Member States and farmers associations have expressed their concern that the recording of animals not identified electronically, but with conventional ear-tags, has to be done out manually and this represents a major administrative burden for keepers and also a potential source of error. EU rules on the identification of sheep and goats were reinforced by Regulation (EC) No 21/2004 after the experience gained with Foot-and-Mouth Disease (FMD) in 2001.

The system, which entered into force in July 2005, is based on the principle of individual traceability using on electronic identification for the sheep and goats born after 1 January 2010 together with up-to-date registers kept on each holding, movement documents and a central register or a computer database. For more information please visit: http://ec.europa.eu/food/animal/diseases/controlmeasures/csf_en.htm

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