Defra has announced its intention to amend the existing Pigs, Records, Identification and Movements Order (PRIMO) 2007 to reflect the requirement of pre-notification of movements following recent consultations on the matter.

As a result, records of pig movements will have to be submitted electronically from October onwards. Defra said that, following extensive trialling, the eAML2 system for farm to slaughter movements was launched in April 2011 across England and Wales. The functions for movements from farm to farm, market, collection centre and show, and for import and export, will be introduced in due course.

Dorothea Schiemann of BPEX explained what the changes would mean for pig farmers, “There will be a transitional period of six months for the phasing out of the paper-based AML2 forms, planned to start from 1 October 2011. This will give producers and businesses the opportunity to adjust to the change in process.

“From April 2012 the AML2 paper forms will cease to be a valid method of reporting movements. Pig movements will either have to be reported using the free eAML2 online service or the free eAML2 bureau service and there will also be third party agents such as marketing groups or the British Pig Association.”

Benefits of the new measures include the fact that the industry will have a realistic herd register providing accurate and timely information. Defra and industry group BPEX have said this will enable better communication and control in the event of disease outbreak and that there will be no need to fill in the same information again and again as the eAML2 service will pre-populate the basic information automatically. Also, when pigs are sent to slaughter, the system combines the movement licence and Food Chain Information (FCI) form in one, which will save producers time.