movements, and zoning or compartmentalisation. 33 Furthermore, the European Union Council Regulations (Regulation EC 1760/2000 and EC 1825/12), require that “beef should be traceable back to the individual animal of origin and that a computerized central system must be established.” Identifying individual animals in disease control is important when collecting disease surveillance information and when sampling animals for diagnostic purposes.  34 

It emerged from documents reviewed and interviews with Principal Veterinary Officers at the visited District Offices that, the system the DVS used in FMD vaccinated zones for livestock traceability was not computerised and was deficient in identifying and providing comprehensive information on individual animals in many aspects, essential for animal traceability in disease control. The following are deficiencies noticed in the system used by the Department for animal traceability and identification in FMD vaccinated zones: 

 Branding : The DVS used the branding system for animal identification in FMD control in the vaccinated zones. However, branding was deficient in accurately identifying individual animals, in that the FMD brand which was relied upon was the same for all animals in a district and the owner’s brand was the same for all animals in a kraal. 

 Herd Cards : The other method of keeping herd cards for each kraal proved to be problematic where there was multiple ownership of cattle in the same kraal which was common in communal areas. In addition, reliability of information in herd cards could not be guaranteed as their updating lay with farmers who according to vaccination reports had not always availed them (herd cards) during vaccination campaigns. 

