Accuracy in EID tag trials 'good enough'

THE man tasked with trialling the electronic identification (EID) system for Scotland's sheep flock has said 100 per cent accuracy is unlikely to be achievable.

But Bob Yuill, deputy chief executive of Scotland's umbrella co-operative organisation, told the European Association of Livestock markets' annual conference yesterday at Thainstone Centre, Inverurie, that the level of accuracy would be sufficient to ensure speedy traceability in the event of another major disease outbreak in Scotland.

Yuill accused some within the fledgling EID industry of doing the sheep industry a disservice and "placing a yoke round the neck of many livestock marts", by suggesting that 100 per cent accuracy in the identification of sheep – fitted with EID tags in their ears – was being achieved.

"There is no doubt that 100 per cent read rates are not consistently achievable as there are far too many variables to make this possible," he said.

"Our view is that rates better than 95 per cent are achievable and sufficient to improve traceability. The overall average being achieved in our pilot scheme is 95.7 per cent and improving."

Electronic identification of individual sheep has been trialled in six livestock markets in Scotland and on 2,009 farms involving 36,000 sheep. This follows an EU decision to impose individual EID in the face of strong opposition from the Scottish sheep industry, backed by the Scottish Government, which argued that batch identification of sheep movements from farms provided adequate traceability.

But a concession was won from Europe to allow sheep tagged electronically on the farm to be identified at so-called "critical control points" at markets and abattoirs – rather than farmers having to invest in the expensive equipment required to read electronic tags.

EID reader systems are achieving high accuracy at markets even when sheep are being sold at the rate of 30 per minute and identification has to be achieved at the rate of two per second as sheep leave the sale ring.

• Scotland's Cabinet secretary for rural affairs, Richard Lochhead, told more than 100 auctioneers from seven European countries attending the conference that there were increasing signs that the decline in Scotland's sheep flocks and beef herds was "bottoming out".

"People are beginning to talk about increased livestock numbers for the first time for a long time," said Lochhead.

Lochhead confirmed he would shortly be issuing a consultation on the possible launch of a compulsory health scheme to eliminate Bovine Viral Diarrhoea in cattle herds.