‘Pivotal’ equine ID consultation launched.

The UK’s Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) is initiating a consultation on equine identification improvements. The proposal includes online and mobile app updating provisions for horse passport details considering the inaccuracies in the existing Central Equine Database, which is attributed to the paper-based nature of horse passports.

About the Consultation by DEFRA

• DEFRA, in a consultation document published on 5th April, has sought views on enhancing equine identification and traceability in England. The proposed methods to deal with equine identification include allowing horse owners to update horse passport details online or via a free mobile phone app.
• Currently, the Central Equine Database supposed to hold up-to-date details of all equids in the UK, reportedly contains inaccurate and incomplete information. This has been acknowledged by DEFRA and attributed to the fact that horse passports are based on paper.
• The move leading to this consultation has been praised by the charity ‘World Horse Welfare’. The CEO, Roly Owers, pointed out that this consultation has provided a golden opportunity to do things right, emphasizing that since 2013 they have been underlining the necessity for revamping equine identification.
• According to Roly Owers, the existing system is ineffective and a simple, reliable digital system is essential for many areas of animal health and welfare regulation enforcement. This includes tracing a horse in poor welfare conditions back to the person responsible.

Concerns and Future Plans

• World Horse Welfare has, however, warned that some owners might find the consultation difficult to access due to the technical language used. As a solution, the charity, in collaboration with the British Horse Council, plans on developing its own simplified survey to collect the views of owners and other parties interested and feed these opinions back into the DEFRA consultation.
• At present, the consultation is only meant for England. World Horse Welfare is thus urging the equine sector to persuade the governing bodies in Scotland and Wales to pursue a similar course of action. The charity envisages an integrated and efficient system, with a connection between the UK and the EU. This would focus on catching equine keepers and movements that are non-compliant through an intelligence-led approach, and simultaneously make it far easier for compliant keepers to maintain the system updated.