National pig identification system launched

A NEW national system to identify pigs and track their movements was launched yesterday by Agriculture Minister Joe Walsh.

The National Pig Identification and Tracing System (NPITS) provides for identification, in some instances by the use of tags, of the country’s 1,100 pig herds.

It also provides for the recording by means of a centrally managed database of all slaughter, import, export or inter-farm movements of pigs into or out of these herds.