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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many animals were exported from the UK for the purpose of (a) breeding, (b) fattening and (c) slaughter in each of the last five years.

This response has been compiled by the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) using data provided by third parties, and as such, is reliant on the providers for the accuracy of the information.

The following has been extracted from TRACES (Trade Control and Expert System). TRACES is a European Commission system employed by EU member states to facilitate and record animal/animal product movements into and throughout the EU.

Below is the number of live animals exported to the EU from 2016:

Exports to the rest of the world require an Export Health Certificate (EHC). APHA’s data retention period for export certification is three years. Subsequently, APHA does not hold records for export consignments carried out before 2018.

The below information shows the number of EHCs issued. The APHA records do not hold the number of animals exported; numerous animals can travel on one EHC. Many of the EHCs agreed with countries are for breeding, fattening or production combined on one document so this data cannot be segmented by export reason.