Registration and identification of horses and horse passports
All horses in the EU must be identified and have a horse passport. All those in charge of an establishment with horses must register it at the Swedish Board of Agriculture. You need to do this in order for us to be able to trace animals in the event of an outbreak of disease.
Register your establishment and the horses stabled there
Register your establishment
Any place where horses are kept is considered an establishment. If you are in charge of an establishment with horses, you must register it at the Swedish Board of Agriculture. The purpose of registration is to enable us to trace animals in the event of an outbreak of disease.
You must register the establishment before you start keeping animals there. If you already keep animals without having registered the establishment, you must register it without delay. It can be a legal or physical person who registers the establishment. This requirement applies to small and large stables, riding schools, pastures etc. It also applies to those who keep horses as a hobby.
If you have horses at more than one place and these places are more than 500 metres from one another, for example, a summer pasture a kilometre or two away, the different locations must be registered as separate establishments.
If you rent a stall for your horse in a stable run by someone else, you need not register it as the person who runs the establishment must register the establishment.
You register the establishment using our e‑service.
Why you must register the establishment
You must register the establishment and keep the data up-to-date in order for you to obtain help at the right time and in the right way in the event of an outbreak of disease and other events that may affect both you and other keepers of livestock.
If you do not register your establishment, you risk making both the tracing and control of a disease more difficult.
You need to register your establishment for the animals at your establishment to be allowed to move to another establishment. You may not receive animals at your establishment which do not come from a registered establishment. A prerequisite for moving a horse to or from another country is that the horse must be accompanied with a health certificate and one of the requirements for getting a health certificate is that the journey starts at a registered establishment.
If you already have a production location number
If, for example, you also have cattle and pigs and have already been allocated a production location number (now referred as registration number), you do not need to create a new establishment but instead supplement the data we already have on your establishment.
In exceptional cases, you can have one registration number for a number of establishments
An establishment shall be concentrated in one place. If you keep your animals at multiple locations, which are not connected, you can still register the various parts that are at most 500 metres apart from one another, as belonging to the same establishment.
Contact us by e-mail for assessment in other cases, where you wish all the establishments to have the same registration numbers.
If several people keep horses at the same farm or race track
There are two options if several people keep horses at the same time at the same farm or racetrack:
Alternative A
You can choose to register everything at one establishment. This applies provided that it is not more than 500 metres between the separate parts or areas of the establishment. If you choose this option, you must agree on which of you is to be responsible for registration of the establishment, registration of the horses and ensuring compliance with the rules at the establishment.
Alternative B
You can choose to register each person's establishment separately provided that the establishments do not overlap. For example, that the animals are not allowed to share stables or pasture. Bear in mind that you cannot register different stalls or different parts of a building as separate establishments.
If you choose this alternative, each of you needs to take care of your own registration of both the establishment and the horses kept there and otherwise comply with the rules that apply for establishments.
You pay an annual fee for each establishment.
Register horses at your establishment
You must register the individual horses that you plan to keep at the establishment for 30 days or more.
You need not register
- horses that visit your establishment for a shorter period than 30 days
- horses that are in Sweden for training, competitions or breeding for at most 90 days
- stallions visiting Sweden for a breeding season.
If a horse moves to another establishment and stays there for 30 days or more, it must be registered at the new establishment. It will then be automatically removed from the register at the previous establishment.
You register the horses using our e‑service.
In order to be able to register a horse, it must have a horse passport
To be able to register a horse at an establishment, it must have a horse passport and be registered in the central Swedish horse database. The association or organisation that has the horse registered in Sweden will transfer the information to the central horse database.
If the horse has a horse passport but you still cannot register it at your establishment, you must contact the organisation or association that issued the horse’s passport or registered the horse in Sweden.
If the horse is not in the database, it may be because it is not registered with any of the organisations issuing horse passports and transfer the data to the Swedish Board of Agriculture. You must then contact a horse passport issuing organisation to register your horse.
All horses must be ID marked
If you are responsible for horses, you must have the horses marked so that they can get a horse passport and be registered. The horse shall be marked in connection to the completion of the other application documents required for the horse passport (for example, the outline diagram). If the marking is needed to enable the foal to be moved temporarily to another country, the horse must be marked to enable the official veterinarian to complete the health certificate.
Horses identified from 21 April 2021 must have a microchip approved by the Swedish Board of Agriculture and which, among other things, shows the country code of the horse’s country of birth.
Horses that have already been marked or have had a horse passport before 21 April 2021 do not need to be marked again.
Approved microchips
| Manufacturer | ICAR's product code | Number series |
|---|---|---|
AEG Identifikationssysteme GmbH | 968003 och 968004 | 752 0 968 0000 0000– |
Bartmed | 932001 | 752 0 932 0000 0000–752 0 932 9999 9999 |
| Datamars | 981011 | 752 0 981 0000 0000–752 0 981 9999 9999 |
| Datamars Iberica, S.L.U. | 941013 | 752 0 941 0000 0000– 752 0 941 9999 9999 |
| Destron Fearing | 985022 | 752 0 982 0000 0000– 752 0 982 9999 9999 |
| RF Holding (Beheer) BV | 967003 och 967004 | 752 0 967 0000 0000– |
Trovan LTD | 956003 | 752 0 956 0000 0000– |
Yangzhou Ruifu Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd | 900237 | 752 0 900 0000 0000– 752 0 900 0099 9999 |
Quality production Europé (QPE) | 945002 | 752 0 945 0000 0000– |
What does it mean that a microchip is approved?
An approved chip complies with the requirements in the EU Animal Health Regulation. In Sweden, chips are approved by the Swedish Board of Agriculture. When we approve microchips, we do not take a position on the performance of the microchip and its other characteristics. Please contact the veterinarian or someone approved for implanting microchips about questions relating to the microchip’s performance or characteristics.
Check that the microchip has been approved
As a veterinarian or person approved to implant microchips, you should check with your supplier that the microchips they sell are approved by the Swedish Board of Agriculture.
Do you want to have your microchip approved?
Please contact us for further information if you are a manufacturer or manufacturer’s agent and want to have microchips approved.
All horses must have a horse passport
All horses must have a horse passport. The horse must be ID marked to obtain a horse passport. When the horses receive its horse passport, it will also be allocated an identity number, a ”UELN” number.
As operator of an establishment for horses, you are responsible for all horses at your establishment having a horse passport.
The county administrative board performs official controls regarding horse passports. You must always be able to show the horse passport without delay in the event of an inspection.
The application for a horse passport
You apply for a horse passport at an organisation that has been tasked with issuing horse passports. They can answer questions about this process, what you need to send to them and how much it costs.
If you want your horse to be registered in a studbook you should contact the appropriate breeding organisation.
You can also register and apply for a horse passport with a breeding organization from another EU country that has expanded its geographical area to Sweden.
The latest date for applying for a passport for your foal
The foal shall have obtained its horse passport before it has attained the age of 12 months, or before it leaves the establishment where it was born for 30 days or more.
If the foal was born between 1 January and 30 June, you must apply for a passport at the latest by 31 December the same year.
If the foal was born between 1 July and 31 December, you must apply for a passport at the latest when the foal is six months old.
If you breed horses that are registered in a stud book in another country
If, in connection with the issuance of a horse passport, you want your horse to be registered in a stud book which is located in another country but which has operations in Sweden, the issuing organisation shall not send the passport directly to you. The horse passport shall be sent via an issuing body in Sweden. This ensures that the horse is registered in Sweden and recorded in the central horse database. In order for this to be allowed the organisation must have expanded its geographical area of operations to include Sweden.
Horses that are born in Sweden
Horses that are born in Sweden must always be marked with a chip with a Swedish country code. This also applies if the passport is issued in another country.
Treatments with certain pharmaceutical products must be recorded in the passport
Horses are considered as food-producing animals that may be slaughtered and become food, unless the horse passport states otherwise. The veterinarian must therefore record in the passport in case the horse has to be treated with pharmaceutical products that must not enter the food chain. If you cannot show the passport, the veterinarian may not treat the horse with these pharmaceutical products.
Most pharmaceutical products used for horses have a shorter withdrawal period for slaughter, the minimum period of time that must pass between treatment and slaughter. Treatments with these pharmaceutical products shall not be recorded in the passport but the veterinarian will record the withdrawal period on the certificate of treatment. When the withdrawal period has expired, the horse may be slaughtered to become food.
Some pharmaceutical products have a six-month withdrawal period for slaughter and the veterinarian shall record treatments with these pharmaceutical products in the horse’s passport.
A few pharmaceutical products may only be used if there is a notation in the horse passport stating that the horse may never be used as food. The veterinarian shall make this notation before the horse is treated with this type of pharmaceutical product. The horse may then not be slaughtered at an abattoir. One example of such a pharmaceutical product is Phenylbutazone.
Foals who have not yet obtained a passport shall be identified in connection with the treatment if they need to be treated with a pharmaceutical product that requires notation in the horse passport or exclusion from the food chain. The application shall then show that the horse shall either be removed from the food chain or may not be slaughtered before six months after the last date of treatment.
When you treat a horse that has not been taken out of the food chain, you must document the pharmaceutical products that you are treating the horse with and the veterinarian that has prescribed the pharmaceutical product. You must retain the medical record for five years.
You must document the following in the medical record
When you treat your animals with pharmaceutical products, you must document the following:
- The identity of the animal
- The diagnosis or cause of the treatment
- The name of the pharmaceutical product, dosage, length of treatment and qualifying period
- The name of the prescribing veterinarian
- The place where you have obtained the pharmaceutical product, i.e. from which pharmacy or which veterinarian (if it concerns a dose obtained out of pharmacy hours)
- The date of treatment and the time if the qualifying period is shorter than 24 hours
If the veterinarian’s visiting log or the horse passport contains all these data, you may use it as documentation. You must also be able to show how you have obtained the pharmaceutical product. You must keep the documentation and the evidence showing how you have obtained the pharmaceutical product for at least five years.
Update the data in the passport
Examples of when you need to update the horse passport are
- if you are going to microchip a horse that has not been marked
- when your horse has been castrated
- when your horse has been removed from the food chain to be treated with a pharmaceutical product which is not permitted for food producing animals.
If you need to update anything in the horse passport, you should contact the issuing body that issued the passport. You must send the passport in for updating at the latest within 30 days.
You can request a temporary document from the organisation when the passport has been submitted. This will replace the passport for the period that it is has been submitted for updating and is valid for a maximum of 45 days. The temporary document may be sufficient for competitions together with copies of, for example, vaccination certificates. Contact the organiser of the competition before the competition to find out what their rules are.
You do not have to state or update owner information in the horse passport. The passport is not considered as proof of ownership. If you none the less wish to have updated owner information in the horse passport, you should contact your issuing body.
Register horses with passports from other EU Member States
If your horse has a passport issued in another EU Member State, you must register the horse here in Sweden. You can do this with one of the issuing bodies in Sweden.
If a horse in Sweden has its passport issued by an organisation in another EU Member State, the passport should be sent to an issuing body before it is delivered to you. Your horse must be registered in Sweden and the central horse database before it is registered as “habitually kept” at an establishment. As this has to be done no later than 30 days after it’s arrival it is important that you register the horse in Sweden as soon as possible. Horses that are in Sweden for a shorter period than 90 days for training, competition and breeding, as well as breeding stallions in Sweden for the breeding season, do not have to be registered in the central database and must therefore not be registered with any issuing body in Sweden.
Horses which have received a passport from a Swedish organisation which is no longer operating also need to be registered with an active issuing body.
If you are uncertain of whether your horse is already registered, you can search in the central horse database. If your horse is not registered there, you need register the horse with an issuing body.
If you purchased a horse from a country outside the EU, you may need to apply for a new passport
If you have imported a horse from a country outside the EU and the horse’s passport does not comply with all of the requirements that apply in the EU, you must apply for a new passport within 30 days of the horse arriving in Sweden.
If the horse passport complies with all of the requirements, it is sufficient that you register the horse in the same way as if had come from another EU Member State. The organisation can inform you of what is the case for your particular horse.
Depending on the country where the horse comes from, it may be removed from the food chain in connection with it obtaining a horse passport in the EU.
If you lose the passport
If you lose the horse passport, you may obtain a duplicate, that is a copy of the passport, or a replacement passport. You can obtain a duplicate if it is possible to make sure of the identity of the horse, for example, through reading the chip or DNA analysis. Otherwise, the horse will receive a replacement passport. You contact the issuing body that has the horse registered in Sweden if you need a duplicate passport. If you need a replacement passport you contact any of the issuing bodies that handle horses with unknown pedigree. A horse with a duplicate or replacement passport may never be slaughtered to be used as food.
Send in the passport for invalidation on the decease of your horse
When your horse is euthanized or dies in another way, you must send the passport to the issuing organisation which made the most recent registration, to enable them to invalidate the passport and register in the database that the horse has deceased. You must do this at the latest 30 days after the death of the horse. If the horse has been slaughtered at an abattoir, the abattoir will most often take care of administering the passport.
The Central Horse Database registers all horses in Sweden
A horse must be registered in the central horse database to enable it to be registered as kept on an establishment. A horse is automatically registered in the horse database when it receives a horse passport from a Swedish issuing body or is registered with a Swedish issuing body.
Revision date: 2023-03-27