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If you trade purebred animals, hybrid pigs or reproductive products such as semen or embryos, you must follow the rules and standards.

If you are approved, these rules apply:

The requirements of UK animal breeding legislation include:

If your breeding association or pedigree deals with breeding associations or organizations in the EU or Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Iceland, this is considered EU trade.

Zootech breed associations and pedigrees formally recognized by the Ministry of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) or related decentralized agencies can trade purebred breeding animals and reproductive products under the same conditions.

This means that animals and germ products from recognized breeding institutions are treated equally in different countries.

To become an officially recognized breed society, you must:

Defra or your local decentralized agency will only give official recognition to one society of each breed at any time. This is to ensure that the integrity of each species is maintained.

Once your breed association is officially recognized, you must promptly update your contact information, including your email address. If your details change, please email fangr@defra.gov.uk

View the list of officially recognized British Breeding Associations.

If a society or organization is not recognized, you may not enter the animals or hair-producing products it trades into the main part of your breeding book or register.

A variety society or organization can be officially recognized, but cannot be traded. Your society or organization may choose to apply for official recognition to maintain confidence in the integrity of the species it represents.

According to England’s bovine tuberculosis legislation, officially recognized cattle breed associations are eligible for higher compensation rates.

To trade on animal husbandry terms, you must be officially recognized and implement one or more approved breeding programs.

Please contact the decentralized authority in your country/region to obtain an application form. This needs to be the country where the headquarters of your breed society is located.

Email: fangr@defra.gov.uk

Zootech Team Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Department Seacole Building 2 Marsham Street London SW1P 4DF

Email: OCVO.EU.TransitionAndTrade@gov.wales

Chief Veterinary Officer, EU Transition and Trade Policy Office, Welsh Government Cardiff CF10 3NQ

Email: Animal.Health@gov.scot

Scottish Government: Agriculture, Rural Transport Agency Animal Health and Welfare P Spur Saughton House Broomhouse Drive Edinburgh EH11 3XD

Email: FarmedAnimals.IRM@daera-ni.gov.uk

Department of Animal Identification and Welfare, Veterinary Services, Animal Health Section, Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA) Ballykelly House, 111 Ballykelly Road Ballykelly Limavady BT49 9HP

If your official accreditation application is rejected, Defra or your authorized agency will tell you why. You have a maximum of 60 days from the date your application is rejected for appeal.

If your application is still rejected, Defra or your authorized agency will tell you why within 90 days of receiving your request.

If your breeding association or operating organization does not comply with the rules, the competent authority can:

To import animal or germ products into the EU breeding book or register, they must have:

The Animal Plant and Health Service (APHA) inspects breed associations in the United Kingdom (England, Scotland and Wales). In Northern Ireland, the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA) will conduct these inspections.

You may be asked for more information. If you do not provide it, your breeding program may be suspended or your official approval will be cancelled.

If you import live purebred breeding animals from outside the EU and request a reduction in tariffs, your animal husbandry certificate will be checked at the border checkpoint.

This will be carried out at the same time as other animal health checks.

These checks do not apply to hair growth products.

When trading and importing animals into the UK, if the animal has an animal technology certificate issued by a breeding agency, you can only enter the animal into the main part of your breeding manual:

Defra can treat all breeding programs in the hybrid pig breeding system as breeding operations rather than breeding associations.

Hybrid pig breeding system includes:

If your pig farming business does not have any members, you can apply to confirm your farming business as a "private enterprise operating in a closed production system."

These companies are not subject to certain breeding program rules. They don’t have to:

Breeders also do not have the right to automatically participate in breeding programs. For more information or to apply for accreditation, please contact Defra or the decentralized authority in your country/region.

The Breeding Association maintains a breeding manual or register that contains information about the pedigree and identity of the live breeding animals in the herd or flock.

You can enter the animal into the main part of the breeding manual if:

If the parents of the horse and other horses are in the same pedigree, you can enter the horse and other horses into the pedigree. You don’t need to trace it back to your grandparents.

You can classify the main part of the breeding book or registration. However, at least one of these categories must be open to breeding animals that meet the minimum requirements.

For example, they meet the criteria of breed characteristics and are descendants of their parents, and grandparents are also included in the main part of the breed's breeding book.

You can add supplementary parts to the breeding book. Society must explain their rules for categorizing and recording animals in these parts of the breeding program.

Breeding associations can add supplementary sections to their breeding books to allow breeding animals whose bloodlines cannot be traced to become part of the herd or herd.

If certain conditions are met, the offspring of these animals may be recognized as a pedigree (and "graded") over time.

If breeding organizations wish to keep a supplementary part in their breeding book, they must consider the classification of the main part.

The animals entered in the supplementary section must:

Using the main part of the pedigree males are graded by female lines.

Women can enter the main part if the following two conditions are met:

To do this, you need:

If horses and other horses meet the entry requirements specified in the approved breeding program, they can be included in the main part of the pedigree.

Different rules may apply to certain endangered breeds or hardy sheep breeds. These make it easier to upgrade to the main part of the breeding book.

The offspring of parents and grandparents recorded in the main or supplementary part of the breeding book may be eligible to enter the main part of the breeding book.

If you manage breeding programs for endangered or hardy sheep breeds and want to upgrade your animals in this way, please contact Defra or your decentralized agency.

Official breed associations and organizations must explain their breeding activities to achieve their social or organizational goals. For example, to improve or preserve varieties, strains or crosses.

A breeding society must have a breeding plan.

The breed association must apply to become a formally recognized breed association and run an approved breed plan.

To be approved for a breeding program, you must:

The breeding plan for purebred breeding animals must:

If you run a breeding program for hybrid pigs and need more information about requirements, please contact Defra or the decentralized authority in your country.

If you build a new, or rebuild an extinct or close to extinction breed, you must give a detailed explanation in the breeding plan. You should contact Defra or the decentralized authority in your country for guidelines.

If there is no breeding book for your variety, you must create a new breeding book.

During the establishment period (agreement with Defra or the decentralized authority in your country/region), the new breeding book can include:

Once the establishment period for your new breeding book is over, your breed association will be officially reviewed.

New breeds and reconstructed breeds will be displayed on the public list of breed associations.

If a species is in serious danger of extinction, or has disappeared, Defra may authorize you to use other animals in your breeding plan.

Animal technology certificates issued by breeding associations or organizations must contain specific information about animals or reproductive products.

The certificate must include:

If the information is public on the website, the results of performance testing or genetic evaluation do not need to be recorded on the animal husbandry certificate. The website must be indicated on the animal husbandry certificate.

The title of all animal technology certificates must:

If you represent a breed association, you need to use the multi-breed animal husbandry certificate template. The certificate can be in "portrait" or "landscape" style. Find templates in Regulation (EU) 2017/717

The certificate must accompany any animal or hair product that is traded and entered in another breeding manual.

If you export purebred breeding animals or germ products to the EU, the animals must have a valid animal husbandry certificate issued by one of the following institutions:

Without a valid certificate, animals cannot enter the main part of EU equivalent breeding books.

### Import to the UK: Livestock Certificate

Breeding animals and reproductive products imported into the UK must be accompanied by a valid Zootech certificate in order to enter the main part of your breeding manual. These can only be issued by third countries approved by the UK for listing.

Find more information about EU recognized societies. Countries not approved by the EU can be found on the European Commission website.

When importing animals into the main part of the breeding manual, you must not discriminate against the country of origin. If an eligible purebred animal has an animal husbandry certificate, it must be entered into the main section regardless of its country of origin.

For more information, please refer to the breeding books section.

You should use the template certificates for cattle, pigs, goats and sheep in EU Regulation (2017)/717.

There are separate certificates:

For equines (for example, horses, ponies, and donkeys), animal technical information is part of the horse identification file.

Please refer to the template horse identification document in Annex I of the Horse Passport Regulations.

You must use Part I and Part II of the Animal Technology Certificate in Regulations (EU) 2017/1940 to fill in the Certificate of Origin (Part V) to provide relevant genealogical information.

There is a derogation that allows the second part to be attached to the passport and linked to the first part by entering the unique horse life number (UELN).

If your horse animals are traded to enter another EU pedigree, they should also be accompanied by the certificate in Annex III of EU Regulation 2017/717

If your horse passport is issued by a British descent passport issuing authority (PIO), it will only be valid for travel if the PIO is a third country listed by the European Union.

To trade with the EU under the terms of animal technology, you must:

To trade with the EU or a listed non-EU (third) country organization on the same terms, you need to be listed as an approved third country organization.

The European Commission maintains a list of breeding institutions in non-EU countries that meet certain requirements of their breeding programs and social and pedigree rules.

If your breeding agency is not listed and you want to apply, please contact Defra or the decentralized agency in your country. After checking and confirming that you meet the requirements and meet the listing requirements, Defra will submit your application to the European Commission.

For EU and non-EU breeding agencies and organizations to trade with the UK under the terms of animal technology, they must:

If you are a British breeding association and want to import animals, you should ensure that the breeding organization or organization you want to trade with is on the British government's list.

You can only enter animals and reproductive products from the listed breeding institutions into the breeding book of your breeding association.

There are list records:

Breeders and breeding associations in the UK could not get the expansion of the breeding program. You cannot register animals living in the European Union in the breeding book.

The European Union and third country breeding agencies can extend the breeding program to the United Kingdom, because the United Kingdom does not have an approved breeding program for purebred breeding animals of the same species. The competent authority can submit an application to the UK government for approval.

If the application is approved, you can register your UK animal in the corresponding EU or third country breeding manual.

Your British animals (and any hair growth products they produce) will still be recognized as purebred animals. The EU breeding agency will issue a valid animal husbandry certificate.

The UK maintains a list of approved expanded breeding programs. If the breeding agency is not approved by the British government, you cannot import your British animals into this EU Breeding Manual.

If the breeding agency of the Republic of Ireland has expanded its breeding program to Northern Ireland, you can import animals located in Northern Ireland into the breeding books of the Republic of Ireland. Check the list of extensions.

You can only import animals located in the Republic of Ireland into the breeding books kept by NI if they:

All purebred breeding animals moved from the UK to Northern Ireland require an animal technology certificate.

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