Cats: Tagging

(asked on 7th December 2020) - View Source

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many and what proportion of microchips in cats (a) failed, (b) migrated and (c) resulted in an adverse reaction in 2019.


Answered by
Victoria Prentis Portrait
Victoria Prentis
Attorney General
This question was answered on 10th December 2020

It is a requirement of the Microchipping of Dogs (England) Regulations 2015 to report adverse reactions to the Veterinary Medicines Directorate (VMD). Adverse reactions include microchip migration and any negative health reaction the veterinarian considers to be adverse. Although there is currently no legal obligation to report adverse reactions following microchipping of cats, the VMD encourages the reporting of these events. The Government will be issuing a public consultation on compulsory cat microchipping shortly.

According to the Pet Food Manufacturers Association's (PFMA) Pet Population report, and the People's Dispensary for Sick Animals' (PDSA) Animal Wellbeing report, there are currently between 7.5 and 10.9 million cats owned as pets in the UK. The PDSA Animal Wellbeing report indicates that of those, it is thought that approximately 74% are microchipped. In 2019, voluntary adverse reaction data shows that 136 cats were recorded as having an adverse reaction. Of that figure, (a) 112 had failed, (b) 14 had migrated and (c) 10 had reacted.

Reticulating Splines