PigTrace Canada, an initiative of the Canadian Pork Council, is handling the distribution of approved ear tags for the Canadian swine traceability system.

The new tags, which will be used primarily for tracking the movement of breeding swine, are being offered in two panel shapes, rectangular or triangular, both of which come with three selections for the female part of the tag, a button, a secondary panel or an RFID button.

PigTrace manager Jeff Clark reports a change in the tags' format has stimulated demand.

Jeff Clark-Canadian Pork Council

When we first came out with the tags in October we only allowed custom printing of a four digit management number and quite a few companies told us they wanted a longer management number on there so now we make it available in six characters with an alpha character at the first or last position so we have a lot more options available for printing of a management number.

The official traceability number is written on the tag as well but we've left most of the room on the tag for a management number.

Since we made that change, I believe it was mid-June, we've started to get a lot more purchases and recently Hytech has come really on stream wanting to get as much of their breeding herd on with the new national tags as much as possible.

For the most part it's been Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Ontario that have been ordering the tags but BC and PEI have come on stream recently and soon will be Alberta, Quebec, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia as well but for the most part it's been Ontario and Manitoba starting to purchase tags as well.

Mr Clark notes tags are currently available in all provinces except Alberta, Quebec, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.

He says, in terms of cost, the basic tag with a female button runs at 57 cents per tag for an order of one thousand and that comes with the option of customised printing of a management number.