eID explained
eID devices
eID devices, also known as tags, contain a radio frequency identifier (RFID) microchip that can be read using a handheld scanning wand or panel reader.
eID tags do not store data. Sheep and goats tagged with NLIS approved sheep and goat electronic devices () can be individually identified and their movements can be traced through the NLIS database.
NLIS accredited breeder eID tags are species specific and use a year of birth (YOB) colour system.
The YOB colour system is voluntary in South Australia and the default colour is yellow.
Post breeder eID tags are pink.
| Year | Tag colour |
|---|---|
| 2022 | Red |
| 2023 | Sky blue |
| 2024 | Black |
| 2025 | White |
| 2026 | Orange |
| 2027 | Light green |
| 2028 | Purple |
| 2029 | Yellow |
NLIS accredited eID tags have two unique numbers:
- Radio frequency identification (RFID) number – a non-visible 16-digit electronic microchip number that can be scanned with a handheld wand or panel reader.
- NLIS number – a visual number printed on the outside of the tag representing:
- property identification code (PIC) of the property it was issued to
- reference to the tag manufacturer
- device type (breeder or post breeder) and species
- year of manufacture
- device serial number.
eID technology is well developed and was first implemented for cattle in South Australia in 2004. Many sheep and goat producers in SA are already using eID to assist with on-farm management and production decisions. Victoria introduced mandatory eID for sheep and goats in 2017.
Watch the video produced by Integrity Systems and the Sheep and Goat Traceability Task Force to learn more about eID tags and supply chain requirements.
Benefits of eID
A national approach to livestock tracking ensures our world-leading biosecurity systems remain fit for purpose. Using eID will improve efficiency in managing an emergency animal disease or food safety incident, allowing us to respond to and recover from an outbreak.
Access to export markets is critical to the success of Australia’s sheep and goat industries, with overseas markets taking:
- over 70% of national sheep meat production
- 95% of goat production
- 98% of wool production.
Minimising the time that Australia is locked out of livestock export markets after an animal disease outbreak will reduce the financial impact across the sheep and goat supply chain.
Watch the Where’s Woolly video highlighting the benefits of individual eID for livestock traceability:
Transcript
Transcript
A story of mob-based movement vs eID tracing
Under the current national system, we track sheep and goats as mobs from property to property, using property identification codes, PICs.
Let's look at how we currently track our sheep and farmed goats under our mob-based movement system, meet Woolly.
Woolly the sheep lives on River Run Farm with 630 others.
Woolly's being moved to Wattle Downs Farm, along with 400 other sheep. Wattle Downs, Farm houses 1,300 sheep, including a few rams, which the owner bought from a breeder.
Sometime later, Wattle Downs decides to move a number of their sheep off the property.
60 sheep are sent to the abattoir, where 1,400 others have already been delivered.
75 sheep are sent to Shady Tree Farmstead, where there are already 575 head on property.
170 sheep are sent to a sale yard to be sold with 6,200 others. 500 sheep from that sale yard and moved to a feedlot housing 8,000 more sheep.
Finally, approximately 1,200 feedlot sheep are moved to an export depot where there are already 21,000 sheep.
But wait, where's Woolly?
Just through Woolly's potential journey, we've come into contact with about 40,280 sheep.
It's at this point we find out that the rams which were brought onto Wattle Downs Farm, where Woolly had been living, were carrying a disease.
Since we don't know where Woolly ended up or even if she is still at Wattle Downs, we have to trace all movements of all sheep off Wattle Downs Farm through all possible paths that the disease could have flowed through.
We also learned that the same breeder which sold the rams to Wattle Downs, sold to 26 other properties.
We now have to multiply all of these traces by 26.
That's 1,047,280 potentially exposed sheep and more than 130 pathways to follow.
But let's just look at finding Woolly in this instance.
If Woolly had been tagged with an eID tag with a unique electronic number, we would have been able to trace her and the others from Wattle Downs as individual sheep. Rather than needing to follow all the potential pathways they could have travelled down and all the other sheep they could have come into contact with.
Having individual eID allows us to find Woolly.
The time to contain a disease is reliant on the rate of traceability available. As a component of the whole system, eID helps us to trace specific stock, and know which others had contact with them, improving our rate of detection, containment and response.
