Commission to support electronic tagging of animals
The IDEA project for the electronic tagging of animals has recently been launched by the European Commission, DG VI, and will run for a period of three years. The aim is to help restore confidence in the safety of meat, particularly in light of the risk of BSE infection, and to provide a satisfactory response to consumers' demands for information on the origin of meat. The project will cover three species - cattle, sheep and goats - which will be identified with three types of electronic tags: ear-tags, ruminal bolus and injectable transponders. The objective is to determine an inviolable electronic tagging system that will allow the tracing of each animal from birth to the slaughterhouse. The European Commission's Joint Research Centre will provide the technical support required and will carry out performance testing and certification of electronic identification devices, quality control of equipment, definition and establishment of the projects central database, data transmission and recording during the project and the global evaluation of the results.