The Canadian Pork Council reports the latest communications from the provincial pork organizations indicate the switch to a new national tattoo numbering systems is on track for June 1.
To accommodate the creation of national multi-species identification and traceability system for tracking the movement of livestock in Canada, the provincial pork organizations are allocating new slap tattoo numbers which unique to each location housing hogs. CPC technical affairs specialist Francois Bedard says indications from provinces that have not yet made the switch to the numbering scheme will be ready to do so June 1.
“We hope by the end of June all tattoos will be allocated in Canada but there’s much work in terms of communications with the processors, etc,” said Bedard. “The provincial pork organizations have really stepped up in a sense and moved toward implementing that within their own province. Some provinces are at different levels but the time line for completion is agreed upon, all provinces, and hopefully we’ll be done at that time frame and if not there’ll only be a few details to work out.” He said the importance of having a premise ID is to know the exact location where people are keeping, assembling, and disposing of their animals. However, identification doesn’t only stop at a producer level.
“We want to know the IDs for auctions, assembly yards, slaughter plants, all different facilities and this information, through strict access in a sense, eventually will be a tool so the Canadian Food Inspection Agency can use this information to properly mitigate, let’s say, a disease outbreak,” said Bedard. He expects the registration of all premises where live swine are housed in Canada to be completed by the end of summer.