Traceability in Uruguay and Argentina

Both countries have sophisticated, intense animal traceability systems. Both countries use a two tag approach with one tag being an EID and the other a visual tag. Farms identification as well as premise identification is coded into the tag numbers and in Argentina the region is also included.  

Uruguay uses an online based system where approved professionals and farmers themselves can input specific pieces of data into the system.  Animals have to be tagged and recorded prior to six months of age; mandatory information is date of birth and sex linked to a tag number.  Movements are also tracked, animals have to be inspected by an approved official (usually a vet at the cost of the producer) to read the tag numbers and submit the request for movement to the government.  The movement is recorded and hard copies of the information is sent with the truck as well.  Completed vaccines are also recorded in the same database; brucellosis and foot and mouth vaccines are required in Uruguay.  Tags are provided free by the government at least for right now.  Uruguay also tracks beef after processing through to the consumer.  Their system is relatively new and was adopted for export purposes.

Argentina is similar by the fact that they track all animal movements.  They do not require inspection prior to the move but the producer is responsible for recording the information regional office a few days prior.  The government has offices is almost every town and larger offices overseeing each region.  The government workers recently returned to work from a strike when I was there and it meant that no cattle could be moved during the strike.  There is no user interface in their database for producers to record their own movements.   Producers pay for the tags and to record movements; movements between farms cost $10.00 CAD per truck and it is $78.00 CAD per truck to take animals to a plant.  The tags only cost them about $2.00 CAD each.  Once the tag is removed at harvest individual traceability is done.  Beef is tracked by lot back to the truck it arrived on however and remains fully traceable as a group.  

  

This enhanced system has been in place for about ten years.  It was developed solely to serve their customer, the European market. The Argentina traceability system includes cattle, sheep, pigs, deer, horses, chickens (commercial) and bees.  The gentleman I was meeting with must have seen the shock on my face when he said bees.  He was quick to clarify that it’s the hives that are tagged not the individuals.  If the hives are moved to different locations that is all tracked.

Both systems were interesting and impressive in the details they record.  The mandatory vaccination protocols and the necessity to record that information does assist is capturing the additional information.  The producers I spoke with don’t love either system from what I could gather however they have accepted it as part of life now and compliance is 100% as there is no way to sell the animals without them being part of a national database.

For information on Brazil's traceability system, visit the post - Brazil Part 4 - Beef