11 Jun 2013

The cattle industry has officially switched over from bolus to eartag, Minister of Agriculture, Mr Christiaan De Graaff has announced.

When launching phase one of the eartag at Lareng crush in the outskirts of Ramotswa today (June 11), Minister De Graaff said success of the livestock industry throughout the world was dependent on effective and efficient animal identification and trace back system.

Mr De Graaff said the new development was expected to benefit the beef market. “It is therefore befitting that we switch over from bolus to eartag to enhance our traceability system,” he said.  

Development of the livestock industry was dependent on, among other things, access to lucrative beef exports markets, which in turn required effective animal identification and trace back system, said Mr De Graaff.

As a result, he said the ministry introduced a livestock identification and traceability system in 2001 as tool to address animal health and public health concerns. The minister said the development was to ensure access to external fresh bovine beef markets.

He, however, said implementation of the Livestock Identification and Trace back System (LITS) had many challenges resulting in both internal and external reviews to address those challenges.

Mr De Graaff said an audit of the veterinary services by the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) in 2011 raised concerns relating to non-visibility of animal identification system.

“My ministry had to change the strategy. In this regard, a change over from reticular bolus to eartag was adopted,” he said. And the ministry adopted a two-phased approach in the implementation of the transition from bolus to eartag.

Phase one involved the coupling of analog eartag to bolus whilst phase two involved the purchase of digital tags from Livestock Advisory Centers (LAC) and application by farmers themselves.

The minister further said the department of veterinary services would play the regulatory role in the implementation of the LITS. Director of Veterinary Services, Dr Letlhobogile Modise said before coming up with the eartag, the ministry benchmarked in the neighbouring countries and abroad.

He said this was after the realisation that bolus had its shortcomings, saying some cattle ended up having double dose of bolus. Dr Modise further said in areas where there was Foot and Mouth Disease, it was possible for the bolus to contribute to the spread of the disease.

In random interviews, farmers welcomed the initiative while some called for the eartags to have reflectors so that they could be seen at a distance by motorists at night. ENDS