Horse Passport Regulations

The Horse Passports (England) Regulations 2004 required all horses to be passported. This was to identify all horses individually ensuring that any horses destined to end up in the human food chain had not been given certain medications. ‘Bute’ is one of these prohibited drugs.

As of 1st July 2009, the European Commission introduced new regulations and are tightening up on previous ones, to ensure a more foolproof approach.

• Any passport issued after this date requires the horse to be identified by means of a microchip which can only be inserted by a veterinary surgeon
• Horses must be accompanied by their passports at all times with a few exceptions ( when stabled, when at grass, when being hacked out from home)
• Passports must be presented at time of veterinary attendance; certain medications cannot be prescribed if the passport is not available.
• Vaccinations must be marked down on the passport
• Section IX of the passport allows the owner to declare whether the horse can or cannot ultimately enter the human food chain. Once signed as ‘not intended for human consumption’, this can never be changed, in order to protect the human food chain. We do require this section to be completed prior to administration of certain ‘prohibited’ drugs including Bute.

We are therefore asking clients to produce their passports when a vet visits or when prescriptions are collected from the surgery. Your cooperation in this matter would be much appreciated.