World meat industry news

A draft law on mandatory identification of farm animals has been passed by the State Duma in the second and the third final reading at the plenary meeting on June 15, 2022. Amendments are to be made to the Federal Law “On veterinary medicine”.

The amendments provide for the identification of animals by any means (leaving out service animals).  The document notes, that animal identification is applied in order to prevent the spread of infectious animal diseases, identification of pathogenic agent sources and paths.

Animal identification data will be added to the Federal State Information System “VetIS” (FSIS “VetIS”), which belongs to Rosselkhoznadzor. The animal identification system “Horriot” has been developed for these purposes, and it has already been launched. A unique alphanumeric code will be given to each animal.

According to the document, all records on animals will be kept free of charge. The methods of identification are to be chosen and covered by the owners at their own expense.

“Records on animals, which are subject to identification, will be made within the time frame set by the government, but not earlier than March 1, 2024,” said Sergey Yakhnyuk, the deputy of the State Duma.

The amendments come into force on September 1, 2023.

According to the document, pets are not subject to mandatory identification. Previously tagged animals, including those outside of Russia, are not subject to additional identification.