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With the aim of improving the traceability system in the country's chicken industry, the Department of Livestock Development plans to launch a project called "e-traceability".

The project seeks to encourage local producers in the supply chain of chicken-meat production to adopt the system of recording information so that it can be traced back easily.

System Development and Livestock Food Standardisation Bureau director Sopat Chawankun said the Livestock Development Department is working on the e-traceability project with the hope of developing it for the chicken industry. It is running a one-year pilot aimed at introducing the model of traceability in the chicken industry, right from the farm to the slaughter.

The concept is that the department will establish a Web-based application to allow 8,000 chicken farms in the country to access and record their farm information easily without having invest money themselves.

Apart from chicken farmers, chicken slaughter and chicken-product manufacturers are also being encouraged to participate in the e-traceability project and fill in slaughter-related and other information to allow tracking the chickens throughout the supply chain.

"There are about 8,000 chicken farms, while slaughter and 200 other processing plants. Under the one-year project, we hope at least 50 of them would get involved in e-traceability," Sopat said.

The department also plans to establish systems, including a database server and application server, to allow the chicken farmers, slaughter houses and product manufacturers to fill in information about the production process using the department's Web-based application.

Under the system, three main information systems are required, which include registration and transfer systems.

The department will design a Web-based application to allow chicken producers to easily fill in information. The required information includes pedigree or parentage, feed mill, pharmacy, hatchery, broiler, slaughter, and further processing.

The system is being developed and is expected to be launched in the near future. The department has invested Bt27 million to set up the system and will allow all participants in the chicken-food supply chain to join on a voluntary basis. It aims to encourage as many chicken producers as possible to join the project.

"Chicken food is one of the country's highest export industries and also requires a traceability system from customers in many countries. We hope that the e-traceability system being operated and run by the department will encourage all chicken producers to participate in the future. Then, we will have an official traceability system to guarantee the standard of the country's chicken-food industry," Sopat said.