A national identification ear tag is applied before an animal leaves its flock of origin. As a minimum requirement the ear tag bears a visible unique number and a “CA” logo. The numbers are assigned to tag manufacturers and tags are distributed through authorized retail stores and other distributors. The distribution centres maintain records of which numbers went to which producers. This information is reported to a central database maintained by the Canadian Cattle Identification Agency (CCIA). At the packing plant the unique identification number is maintained up to and including the point of carcass inspection.

Sheep producers are required to keep records of the movement of animals. This decision was made mainly to keep expenses down for producers and encourage participation. As we continue to improve and develop our national traceability systems, we endeavour to include value-added benefits to the producer. Providing tools and resources to assist in management and improvement of the national flock benefit not only the individual but our industry as a whole.

These records are used in place of retired tags to determine if an animal in question has gone to slaughter or been moved to another location or farm. One option for the future is to have the tag numbers retired at slaughter. This involves tags being read and entered into the database as “retired” by the slaughter facility, which effectively tells officials that the animal is no longer part of the national flock. Currently the minimum requirement for tagging of sheep leaving the farm or origin is the Ketchum Kurl-Lock #3 tag. This tag is not machine readable and would require a considerable about of labour to read and retire from the database, so again choosing to reduce expenses to the system, the decision was made to use on-farm records for this purpose. In the future, as we move towards electronic records and tags, tag retirement will become feasible. It may also be possible for abattoirs to provide carcass grading information back to producers to use for genetic improvement and their on-farm management.

In the event of a health or safety issue involving an animal, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) will be given access to the CCIA sheep database showing the flock of origin. Using the records maintained by the producers, CFIA will trace the movement of the animal from the flock of origin to its last location to determine the source of the problem.

In the vast majority of cases, when no health or safety issue is noted, the unique individual ID will be accessed only when it is entered into the CCIA database.