PAS 44:2014

PAS 44:2014 Official identification for cattle. Specification

This Publicly Available Specification (PAS) has been developed by BSI in association with British Cattle Movement Service (BCMS) to provide a specification for identification eartags for cattle. It was sponsored by the Rural Payments Agency (RPA).

PAS 44 specifies requirements for the performance and testing of eartags used for the official identification of cattle. This PAS is not applicable to management tags or electronic components of eartags.

The security aspects considered are those concerned with durability, tamper-evidence and safeguarding against a tag’s reusability, materials including plasticity, welfare standards and printing processes including durability of print.

Contents of PAS 44, specification for cattle eartags contain:

• Scope
• Normative references
• Terms and definitions
• General requirements
• Performance requirements
• Information and marking
• Applicators and insertion of eartags
• Method of test for tensile strength of eartags
• Method of test for resistance to tampering
• Method of test resistance to impact at low temperature
• Method of test for abrasion resistance
• Protocols for the evaluation of barcodes (machine) readability and content
• Bibliography

  List of figures:

• Piercing angle of the male tip of an identification eartag
• Base machine

  List of tables

• Dimensions
• Content
• Principal
• The performance of the tag assessed against the minimum performance standards

PAS 44 represents cattle eartags which have been tested to PAS 44, which was enhanced to bring it in line with the existing PAS 66, Official identification eartags for sheep and goats. Specification.

After discussion with interested parties it was decided that eartags tested to the previous editon of PAS 44 (published in 2002) may still be sold, provided they are clearly marked with PAS 44:2002 and differentiated from PAS 44:2009 eartags both at point of sale and on the Ear Tag Allocation System (ETAS).This specification is not intended to restrict new developments in design and materials.