ELECTRONIC identification of
individual sheep is back on the
political agenda.
The National Sheep Association
(NSA) expressed "total frustration
and dismay" that the Portuguese
presidency of the
European Union was pushing
ahead with the plan.
The EU Council of Ministers is
expected to agree a date for its introduction
later this month - possibly
as early as 2010.
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Peter Morris, NSA chief executive,
said any compulsory requirement
for each sheep to be
electronically identified (EID)
and recorded would be an "unmitigated
disaster" for the UK.
Some producers could benefit
from EID but, he said, to make it
compulsory for all sheep and all
sheep keepers was "totally unnecessary,
disproportionate and
impractical".
Mr Morris said the NSA was
"sick and tired" of trying to establish
why EU officials felt there
was any reason to introduce EID,
given all the measures already in
place to control the spread of animal
diseases.
He said: "No one can give any
specific situations where recording
the individual identities of
sheep will show a benefit or will
be required.
"The sheep industry has had
the summer from hell with disease,
with FMD and now bluetongue,
and yet there has not
been any time when it was
thought that there was a need to
record the individual identities of
sheep as they moved."
Mr Morris said the UK sheep
industry could not cope with
compulsory EID.
He said: "The extra costs that
will be incurred will not be
picked up by anyone else in the
food chain and, with virtually
every sheep farmer already losing
money, for many it will be the
final straw.
"If the EU is determined to see
off once and for all the critical
mass of the sheep industry in the
UK and all food, environmental
and rural infrastructure benefits
that the industry brings with it,
then it should carry on and make
every sheep farmer in the UK
have EID."
He said the Government must
tell EU ministers that EID cannot
be forced on the UK sheep industry
without doing irreparable
damage. Mr Morris said: "If this
does not happen and it is introduced,
then it will be an unmitigated
disaster and it will never be
with the blessing of NSA."
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