Agriculture department requires equine premises to be registered

The Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Simon Coveney TD, has signed into law, a new order to require anyone who is the owner or person in charge of any premises in which horses or other equines (such as donkeys, ponies etc) are kept to register their premises with the Department.

This Order completes the Department's commitment to have a full register of premises on which all farmed animals are kept. Currently premises where cattle, sheep, pigs or poultry are kept must be registered.

The Minister explained that the purpose of registration is simply to ensure that the Department has a full picture of where horses are located, so that it can alert owners quickly in the event of a contagious disease outbreak, quickly implement disease control measures and also give advice on appropriate precautionary, containment and control measures as soon as possible.

This legislation applies to all premises where horses and other equines, regardless of their number or age, are kept and complements the recently enforced EU requirement that all horses, ponies and donkeys born after 1 July 2009 have passports with a corresponding microchip/transponder and a universal equine life number (UELN).

The owners or persons in charge of premises where horses are kept will be required to maintain records to assist the Department in tracing horses, should a disease outbreak occur. The scale of record keeping required depends on the premises.

For example, premises where horses are kept on a temporary basis (studs, shows, sales, farriers, vets etc) must record the date, UELN, name, address and the premises of origin ID of the animals brought onto their premises. Premises where there is permanent residency would be required to maintain records of 'permanent' movements off the premises of any resident equine being transferred to another premises on a permanent basis or similarly permanent movements onto the premises - to include date, UELN and premises ID to/from which the equine has moved.

Minister Coveney said he was looking forward to full co-operation in the new registration process. "This initiative represents a very important step in maintaining our excellent record in equine health and will further enhance our record as the top producer in both the thoroughbred and horse sport sectors.  Many premises are already keeping good records and this new requirement for registration of premises should not place an undue additional burden."

Registration is through the local Department's Regional Offices.  Application forms on which to register may be obtained from the Department's regional offices or from the Department's Animal Health Division, tel. 01 6072466 or from the Department's website here.