Consultation on livestock branding and earmarking in Queensland

Input from members and SIGs contributed to the AVA’s recent submission to the “Consultation on livestock branding and earmarking in Queensland”.

This included the AVA’s position that current branding, earmarking or ear-notching methods are no longer fit for today’s biosecurity needs or indeed animal identification and traceability requirements, and as such believes that radiofrequency identification (RFID) is the preferred method of permanently identifying individual animals. It was also submitted that animal welfare is potentially compromised when carrying out branding and earmarking identification methods, specifically that the provision of suitable anaesthesia or analgesia is often impracticable or impossible when branding. The AVA’s branding guidelines were recommended to be adopted.

The full submission can be found here.