Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Tuesday, Mar 30, 2004
Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Tuesday, Mar 30, 2004 |
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Agri-Biz & Commodities
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Animals & Livestock Australia to use electronic tags to trace livestock history M.R. Subramani
Recently in Sydney AUSTRALIA plans to introduce property identification code (PIC) that will trace back the origins of cattle and sheep with the help of electronic tags that will be attached to the tail or ear of the animal. "PIC will have individual animal data and it will become operational by the middle of 2005," said Dr Peter Barnard, General Manager, Planning and Market Service, Meat and Livestock Australia. While the tags will be on the tail for the cattle, for the sheep, it will be attached to their ears. "The tags on the tails of the cattle will be specially coded," Dr Barnard told a group of visiting journalists. The tags are being proposed, as Australia wants to have a proper record of its cattle and the way they are being reared. For example, the tags will be able to provide details of cattle's parents. It will also have details of the birth, the feed the cattle have been put on, the antibiotics used and history of any problem faced. "In the US, it took them nearly six weeks to identify the root of the cattle that was affected by mad cow disease. We don't want that to happen here. We want to immediately identify the whole lot and take prompt action," an Australian Agriculture Ministry official said. According to Prof James Rowe, Chief Executive Office, Australia Sheep Industry CRC, PIC will help in individual identification of sheep. "Currently, New Zealand is using this electronic tag method effectively," he said. These tags, Prof Rowe said, will have details of the productivity of parents of each sheep, weight of their fleece, carcass weight, details of muscle, quality of wool and their resistance to parasites. "The idea is to trace the animal even through their meat," he said. The plan assumes significance in the wake of outbreak of epidemics such as the mad cow diseases and avian influenza. Also, countries such as the European Union have now begun to insist on trace back system to ensure food safety. In India, such a trace back system is now being tried for grapes as some of the consignments were found to have had pesticide residues.
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