Identify everything!
How is it going?
For more than ten years something had to be done. This is probably the reason why pilot projects in the field of cattle identification are currently being carried out in a number of regions - the Republic of Bashkortostan, St. Petersburg, Saratov, Nizhny Novgorod and Rostov regions. The main task of the system is to prevent outbreaks of animal diseases, which are still quite common in modern Russia.
According to Head of the Duma Committee on agricultural issues Vladimir Kashin, the cases of poisoning with livestock products often happen in the country. "The situation is aggravated by the lack of a national system in Russia that provides identification, registration of animals and tracing of animal products", said Kashin at a recent parliamentary hearing in the State Duma.
According to the draft law on the identification of livestock, marking of animals will be carried out by a number of means: plastic tags, subcutaneous microchips, boluses, brand, rings and collars. For different types of animals there will be used either visual or mixed (visual and electronic) means of identification. It is assumed to use individual marking for cattle.
Opinions
Among the participants of the market interviewed by The DairyNews, almost all admitted the need for the early introduction of a cattle identification system as well as the existence of a number of problems that essentially indicate the absence of a system as such. Under the project, the system will consist of a process of marking, identification of livestock and its subsequent registration. However, all these stages are not yet connected with each other; in addition, there is no understanding what rules should both farmers and pet owners be prepared for. After all, the document assumes a "variative approach".
In addition, some experts noted the negative impact that the marking of animals, if it is assigned to the owners of farms, will have a negative impact on small enterprises and smallholders.
- The system of identification of cattle, first of all, is necessary for large farms, it is less important for small private farms, in my opinion. The introduction of the identification system means additional financial costs – against the background of the fact that the number of cattle is declining, and the population is getting older, I would say that this will affect the industry negatively, - said one of the interviewed experts.
- I believe that in general, the identification of animals is a very important point, which with proper implementation will benefit every owner of the farm, large or small farm. It is necessary to take into account all the features and factors, as a result, to work out the issue deeply and widely. As practice shows, if the passed law is not finalized, the market gets either a broken system or the one that would be better not to implement. In my opinion, it is necessary to communicate with a large, medium and small farmer, with state institutions at one table, and jointly identify the key points, as a result there will be formed a working mechanism with the least number of errors, - said Sergey Ovodkov, Deputy General Director of JSC “Kalininskoe".
- At the moment the system itself is not ready. There is no federal electronic register. Today we can already receive a range of numbers from the Rosselkhoznadzor and register them in the electronic breeding book of the Holstein breed, but for other breeds of dairy cattle or other species of animals, such breeding books do not exist yet as a ready infrastructure, - expressed her opinion Olesya Smirnova, Executive Director of the Association of producers of Holstein breed cattle.
By the way, the question remains - who will pay the cost of tagging and other methods of marking of animals? Market participants in the majority noted that this should be done by the owner of the animal. This ensures the most efficient system.
It is assumed that the specialists of veterinary services will keep records of marked animals, and then this information will be entered into the Federal information system in the field of veterinary medicine. Control over the process of chipping and over veterinary safety and epizootic situation in Russia in general is planned to be assigned to the Rosselkhoznadzor. More than that, the work in the information system in the field of veterinary medicine for producers of agricultural raw materials has already become obligatory, for finished dairy products it will become obligatory until the end of 2019. But it will take time to implement identification that in fact should provide traceability...
Full comments of market participants can be found in the Hot topic section.
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