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Horse Passports
With effect from the end of June 2004, under new legislation all horses and ponies (and other forms of equidae) in England are required to have a passport identifying the animal which contains Section IX veterinary pages. This legislation is intended to ensure that equines which have been treated with veterinary medicines not authorised for use in food-producing animals cannot be slaughtered for human consumption. The Section IX veterinary pages require the owner to declare whether or not the equine is ultimately intended for human consumption and allows for certain veterinary medicines administered to the horse to be recorded. All equines will need a passport irrespective of whether or not the horse is ultimately intended for human consumption.
Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland will be introducing similar legislation.
Every equine must be issued with a passport by the time it reaches six months old or earlier if it permanently leaves the premises at which it was born, before it is six months old. Passports are valid for the entire lifetime of the horse.
A number of Breed Societies are registered with DEFRA and therefore authorised to issue horse passports. Those owners that have an existing passport for their horse/pony issued by a DEFRA authorised Breed Society can return their existing passport to the issuing Breed Society to have the new IX section inserted without the need to complete a full horse passport application form. In many cases, the DEFRA authorised Breed Society are able to offer this service at a much lower rate than applying for a full passport elsewhere. Therefore owners of horses with existing passports issued by a DEFRA authorised Breed Society should contact the Breed Society to see if they offer to update existing passports to comply with the new legislation.
For those whose horse or pony is not registered with a DEFRA authorised Breed Society, a number of other organisations have been authorised by DEFRA to issue horse passports to any breed/type of equine in order to comply with the new legislation. A full list of DEFRA authorised Breed Societies and Organisations from which horse passports can be obtained can be found here.
It is the responsibility of the horse owner to obtain a passport but if the horse is on permanent loan, the keeper should hold the passport.
Each horse should be accompanied by its passport in the following circumstances: -
• When it is moved to other premises for competition purposes;
• When it is moved to other premises for the purposes veterinary treatment;
• When it is moved to the premises of a new keeper;
• When it is moved into or out of Great Britain;
• When it is moved to a slaughterhouse for slaughter;
• When it is moved on any other occasion specified by the recognised organisation.
As with all Government legislation, there are penalties that can applied by the courts for non-compliance. These are: a fine to a maximum of £5,000 for cases involving one to ten animals and a maximum fine of £1,000 per animal for cases involving more than ten animals. Second offences can lead to a maximum of one month’s imprisonment.
As all equines are required to have passports the Government intends to collect some of the data on every horse, probably its breed, age, passport ID number and location, to create a horse database. This basic information is currently not available in any form, and is necessary if horses are to be included in the veterinary surveillance system as intended. This will help to plan effective monitoring of diseases, carry out risk assessments or develop effective control strategies in the event of an outbreak of a notifiable or exotic disease of horses such as African Horse Sickness or West Nile Fever. The Government is also working with the industry to ensure that the database contains other voluntary information eg on breeding and competition performance, which will be of use to the industry and to individual horse owners.
Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland will be introducing similar legislation.
Every equine must be issued with a passport by the time it reaches six months old or earlier if it permanently leaves the premises at which it was born, before it is six months old. Passports are valid for the entire lifetime of the horse.
A number of Breed Societies are registered with DEFRA and therefore authorised to issue horse passports. Those owners that have an existing passport for their horse/pony issued by a DEFRA authorised Breed Society can return their existing passport to the issuing Breed Society to have the new IX section inserted without the need to complete a full horse passport application form. In many cases, the DEFRA authorised Breed Society are able to offer this service at a much lower rate than applying for a full passport elsewhere. Therefore owners of horses with existing passports issued by a DEFRA authorised Breed Society should contact the Breed Society to see if they offer to update existing passports to comply with the new legislation.
For those whose horse or pony is not registered with a DEFRA authorised Breed Society, a number of other organisations have been authorised by DEFRA to issue horse passports to any breed/type of equine in order to comply with the new legislation. A full list of DEFRA authorised Breed Societies and Organisations from which horse passports can be obtained can be found here.
It is the responsibility of the horse owner to obtain a passport but if the horse is on permanent loan, the keeper should hold the passport.
Each horse should be accompanied by its passport in the following circumstances: -
• When it is moved to other premises for competition purposes;
• When it is moved to other premises for the purposes veterinary treatment;
• When it is moved to the premises of a new keeper;
• When it is moved into or out of Great Britain;
• When it is moved to a slaughterhouse for slaughter;
• When it is moved on any other occasion specified by the recognised organisation.
As with all Government legislation, there are penalties that can applied by the courts for non-compliance. These are: a fine to a maximum of £5,000 for cases involving one to ten animals and a maximum fine of £1,000 per animal for cases involving more than ten animals. Second offences can lead to a maximum of one month’s imprisonment.
As all equines are required to have passports the Government intends to collect some of the data on every horse, probably its breed, age, passport ID number and location, to create a horse database. This basic information is currently not available in any form, and is necessary if horses are to be included in the veterinary surveillance system as intended. This will help to plan effective monitoring of diseases, carry out risk assessments or develop effective control strategies in the event of an outbreak of a notifiable or exotic disease of horses such as African Horse Sickness or West Nile Fever. The Government is also working with the industry to ensure that the database contains other voluntary information eg on breeding and competition performance, which will be of use to the industry and to individual horse owners.