Traceability systems including PID work best with up-to-date information

By Alicia Sopatyk, PAg, Provincial Livestock Specialist, Traceability, Livestock Branch, Tisdale

Premises Identification (PID) links livestock and poultry to geographic locations, allowing for emergency planning and quick response in an emergency or animal disease outbreak—and is one of three pillars of traceability, alongside animal identification and movement reporting.

A premises is an area of land described by a legal land description, parcel number or street address. Livestock owners or operators of comingling sites where they keep, assemble or dispose of livestock are required to have at least one PID number; comingling sites commonly include community pastures, exhibitions and fairgrounds.

A PID number is specific to the land, which can be owned, rented or leased. PID accounts can be associated with multiple PID numbers, which is beneficial if the individual also has land several kilometres away, ensuring notification in a regionalized emergency or outbreak.

All species located on the premises should be included on the PID account—this includes bees, cattle, bison, camelids, cervids, fowl, fur animals, goats, horses, mules and asses, poultry, ratites, sheep, swine and wild boar. Listing all types of livestock and poultry on the operation is important to ensure you, as the owner or operator of the comingling site, are contacted if there is a species-specific emergency. It’s also important to accurately list the capacity of each species, which refers to the maximum number of animals that could be on the premises at any one time, so the appropriate number of resources are available to be deployed in an emergency.

PID numbers support emergency planning and response and are also required to access Ministry of Agriculture services and programs, livestock and poultry supplies from retailers.

As of January 1, 2025, the origin and destination premise are required on livestock manifests. Although it’s required for PID account holders to update their information within 30 days of any change, the Ministry of Agriculture also operates a recertification cycle (currently every five years); this process is presently transitioning from physical letter to email. In addition to adding or updating the email address on your PID account, please add saskpid@gov.sk.ca to your contacts to avoid being flagged as spam or going to your junk folder.

PID is legislated nationally under Part XV of The Health of Animals Regulations, and provincially through The Animal Production Act and The Animal Production Regulations.

Data security is important to us. Your information is stored on a secure website and is only reviewed by federal and provincial government officials, or their designated agents, involved in traceability for the purposes of preventing, preparing for, responding to and recovering from animal diseases and natural disasters and verifying the accuracy of the information.

For more information on premises identification, to register or to update your account, visit the premises identification webpage, call the Agriculture Knowledge Center at 1-866-457-2377 or email us at saskpid@gov.sk.ca. Maintaining an up-to-date account ensures you receive the best service and support in an emergency—and, most importantly, protects animal health, public health and market access for livestock and poultry industries. Register or update your account today!