More than 4.5 million heads of sheep and goats are identified in Morocco between April 22 and June 6, 2020, the National Office of Food Safety (ONSSA) says.
This identification exercise continues in all regions with the aim of covering all the livestock prepared for the feast of the sacrifice of Abraham.
The Office recalls that, as in the past two years, this operation consists in placing a yellow loop on one of the animal’s ears with a unique serial number for each beast.
In the absence of this distinctive sign, any unidentified sheep or goat must not be the subject of a purchase by the consumer. Thus, the purpose of this operation is to identify first the ownership of the animals and their breeders and then to ensure the traceability of the animals’ journey from their breeding to the point of sale.
In addition, the Office’s veterinary services have registered 242,000 sheep and goat fattening units as part of this program. In addition to the registration of fattening holdings and the identification of animals, preparations include a set of measures, such as the control of animal feed, the use of veterinary drugs, watering, as well as the movement of droppings, conditionally required by obtaining a pass from the ONSSA veterinary services in order to monitor their traceability.
It should be noted that the health situation of the national livestock is satisfactory. Health monitoring and surveillance are carried out across the kingdom by the ONSSA veterinary services, in close collaboration with private veterinarians.
Each year, the ONSSA recommends that consumers only buy animals sold at known and closed points of sale, and buy animals that are mobile, active, reactive and healthy.
HA/fss/Dng/APA