Livestock: Exports

Kerry McCarthy
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many (a) unweaned calves, (b) cattle, (c) sheep and (d) other livestock species were exported from the UK for (i) further fattening and (ii) slaughter in 2008.

Jane Kennedy
Data collected from the EU Commission's Trade Control Expert System (TRACES) indicate that the following numbers of live cattle, sheep, goats and pigs were certified by official veterinarians as meeting the intra-Community trade rules for dispatch from the United Kingdom to other EU member states for either further fattening or slaughter during 2008:

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|Livestock type|Fattening|Slaughter|Total  |
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|Cattle        |84,484   |17,597   |102,081|
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|Sheep         |58,416   |256,447  |314,863|
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|Goats         |4        |1        |5      |
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|Pigs          |2710     |26,001   |28,711 |
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|Total         |145,614  |300,046  |445,660|
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Information on whether any of these animals were unweaned at the time of dispatch is not captured on TRACES, therefore these data are not available.

The number of animals certified for export from the United Kingdom to countries outside of the EU is not recorded centrally, meaning that it is not possible to provide these data.