A service for the handling, processing and verification of certain Pig Movement Notifications

Description

Any person intending to keep pigs must, prior to taking possession of any pigs, submit an application for a pig herd number to the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM). Successful applicants are assigned a unique herd number which is registered on the Department’s systems and activated to keep pigs. Approximately 1.5 million pigs are kept in Ireland on some 1,250 registered holdings. Of those holdings, about 270 would be regarded as commercial units. Pig keepers are required by law to notify the Department (via an outsourced service provider) of all movements of pigs both onto and off their holdings. This currently involves a dual notification process where the keeper of the herd from which the pigs are moving must notify the intention to move a batch of pigs and the receiving keeper must confirm receipt of the consignment. The movement is only recorded when corresponding notifications are received from both parties involved in the move - i.e. the movement has been reconciled. There is one exception to this requirement – data in relation to pigs moving to a DAFM-approved pig slaughter plant are recorded directly onto the DAFM system at the slaughter plant. Such movements are deemed to be reconciled and do not require separate keeper notification of the intent to move pigs to such locations. Accordingly, such movements are excluded from this tender process. In the region of 8,200 reconciled pig movements are recorded on an annual basis to and from premises other than DAFM-approved slaughter plants. These are movement notifications made by Pig Herd keepers, Pig Dealers, Agents, Other Keepers and Processors in relation to pigs moving from farm-to-farm, farm to abattoir, farm to export and a small number from farm to shows etc. The Contracting Authority intends to procure a service to handle, process, verify and record the pig movements as indicated above. Details of total annual movements recorded during 2024 are contained in Tender documents. The successful tenderer will be responsible for the handling, processing, verification and recording of all pig movement notifications made by pig herd owners, pig dealers, agents, other keepers and processors with the exception of pig movements directly from registered pig holdings to DAFM-approved pig slaughter plants. It is currently intended that the service must be fully operable from 1 March 2026.