October 9, 2009

The Canadian Pork Council (CPC) has begun distributing its traceability ear tags for swine as part of the development of a national swine traceability programme.

 

CPC traceability programme manager Jeff Clark said the initial focus is to get the tags into the breeding herds.

 

Producers in Manitoba and Saskatchewan can place orders and the other provinces will come on line within the next few days or the next few weeks.

 

Clark said the tag was made to suit the needs for barn management purposes.

 

The key components of the traceability programme are to help producers fight diseases, improve potential market access worldwide and to create a business tool that can help producers in their business, said Clark.

 

He said there are two types of tags. Both will have a printed traceability number for the animals but there is also room for a barn management number that can be custom-printed by the producers.