Isabel Hurley

THE European Union clamped down on equine identification across the Eurozone this week by tightening up horse passport rules and requiring all member states to put a central equine database system in place by 2016.

All EU countries are now required by law to have a central equine database by January 1 2016. Member states without one were granted an extension to July 2016 to implement new systems.

The basic aim of this week’s tighter controls is to prevent the inadvertent – or fraudulent – slaughter for human consumption of horses which should never have entered the food chain.

There is nearly seven million horses, ponies and donkeys in the EU. Since 2008, all EU horses are required to have a passport while all equidae born after July 1 2009 also need to be micro-chipped.

A 15-digit Universal Equine Life Number (UELN) for foals, database tracking and a crackdown in equine slaughter procedures at abbatoirs are to the forefront of the new system.

Technical security systems are being incorporated to deter passport fraud.

This week’s EU decision stemmed from 2013’s massive horsemeat scandal which led to the dumping of millions of tonnes of food from supermarket shelves after the discovery of horse DNA in beef-labelled products.

FOOD TESTS

Ongoing food tests across the EU uncovered further equine DNA traces in food in seven EU countries including Germany, Spain and Portugal in July. horses treated with bute are automatically excluded from the food chain while a six-month waiting period pre-slaughter for human consumption applies to other veterinary treatments.

An EU spokespersons said: “If a horse receives a specific medicinal treatment with substances listed specifically for use in horses, a six-month waiting period needs to be respected before that horse can be slaughtered for human consumption.”

EU Commissioner in charge of Health, Tonio Borg said: “I am happy to announce that we have taken these EU rules one notch further. From 2016 on, a more reliable and safer European system for the registration and identification of horses will be in place in the EU.

“The revised rules will require foals to be issued with a single passport, having a unique identification number, before their first birthday. The passport also serves as a medical record and will accompany the horse over its life time.

The introduction of a compulsory centralised database in all Member States will assist the competent authorities to better control the issue of passports by different passport issuing bodies. I believe that closer cooperation between Member States will further bridge gaps to prevent horses not intended for the food chain from ending up on our plates,’’ added Borg.