Livestock traceability history
Animal Health Australia (AHA) has been involved in the development of robust livestock identification and traceability systems since it was established in 1996, but Australia’s livestock industries have been hard at work tracing animals since the 1960s.
How NLIS started in Australia
Australia’s first cattle-tracing system was introduced in the 1960s to assist the bovine Brucellosis and Tuberculosis Eradication Campaign (BTEC).
The BTEC system used a unique identification number that was aligned to an 8-digit code for each farm (parcel of land), known as the property identification code (PIC). The 8 digits of the PIC included a state identifier, a regional prefix and an individual property number relating to that region. Use of the PIC was underpinned by Australian state and territory legislation, and application of a tail tag or transaction ear tag became a mandatory requirement for all cattle sales and transfers of ownership.
Over time, this system became the enabling instrument for residue surveillance of agricultural and veterinary chemicals and disease surveillance.
In 1996, the PIC system was strengthened with the National Vendor Declaration (NVD), a food safety and product integrity consignment note attesting to the fitness-for-purpose of a given consignment of cattle.
Official government requirements mean that a separate NVD and tagging system is required for some markets.
Table 1: Timeline of Australia’s work towards permanent, whole-of-life identification of livestock
| Year | Activities |
| 1960s | Vinyl wraparound tail tag invented and trialled
Bovine Brucellosis and Tuberculosis Eradication Campaign (BTEC) Committee established |
| 1966 | Tail tagging of cattle begins in NSW |
| 1969 | BTEC begins |
| 1970 | Introduction of plastic or vinyl tail tag |
| 1992 | Vendor declaration and pink tail paint introduced for EU eligible cattle |
| 1994 | Pink tail and ear tags introduced to identify HGP-free cattle |
| 1996 | First edition of National Vendor Declaration (NVD) introduced |
| 1999 | First electronic NLIS (Cattle) tags released in Victoria
Decision to use NLIS (Cattle) to track all EU eligible cattle in Australia |
| 2002 | All cattle born in Victoria had to be NLIS identified |
| 2003 | Agreement to implement a risk-based approach to a national system for livestock identification and tracing. Proposal included a range of identification devices based on the complexity of animal movements. |
| 2004 | National agreement on livestock tracing performance standards. States and territories committed to fully implement NLIS (Cattle) |
| 2006 | NLIS (Sheep and Goats) implemented using visually readable tags and paper livestock movement records |
| 2007 | Electronic NLIS (Sheep) tags became available for use on a voluntary basis |
| 2008 | NLIS (Pork) development began |
| 2008 | NLIS (Alpaca & Llama) development began |
| 2009 | NLIS (Sheep and Goats) mandatory tag for all stock leaving property of birth |
Related links
- National livestock Identification Scheme
- NLIS (Cattle)
- NLIS (Sheep & Goats)
- NLIS (Pork)
- NLIS (South American Camelids)