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.

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."