Volume 5: Animal Health, 1989-96
5. Cattle-tracking
Introduction

5.1 An important feature of animal husbandry is the ability to identify and trace the history and location of an animal. This has commonly been achieved by eartagging or tattooing, and by the use of records detailing the animal's movements, parentage and offspring. Historically, owners identified their animals for day-to-day farm management purposes. More recently, national policies on disease control have led to the imposition on farmers of a succession of record-keeping and animal identification requirements. The first fully national identification scheme in the UK was introduced for cattle in 1953, as part of efforts to eradicate bovine tuberculosis. All cattle that were not already registered with a breed society had to be identified with an ear tag or tattoo. The system underwent some modifications, but formed the basis of the identification and registration scheme that operated in the UK when BSE emerged. ¹

5.2 This chapter examines how the BSE epidemic led MAFF officials and industry participants to reassess the adequacy of existing cattle-tracking systems in the UK. The fear that BSE might be maternally transmitted raised the question of whether the offspring of BSE-affected animals could be identified and located if necessary. MAFF responded by imposing more stringent identification and record-keeping requirements on farmers.

5.3 The accessibility of cattle movement and breeding records is an important component of any cattle-tracking system. When BSE emerged, tracing of individual animals depended on a physical 'paper-chase' to ascertain the origin of an animal. Following a recommendation of the House of Commons Agriculture Select Committee in 1990, pressure was placed on MAFF to establish a central, computerised database to allow fast and accurate tracing of every bovine animal in the UK. We discuss in detail how MAFF officials responded to that recommendation.