Recital 18

(18)Veterinary supervision necessary to provide the animal health guarantees required in accordance with Directive 2009/156/EC can only be ensured, where the holding as defined in that Directive is known to the competent authority. Similar requirements result from the application of Part A of Chapter II of Section I of Annex I to Regulation (EC) No 854/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council ¹⁵ in relation to equidae as food-producing animals. However, having regard to the frequency with which equidae are moved, it is not appropriate to establish a system whereby equidae should be traceable in real-time. Rather, identification details should be available to the competent authority and for this purpose a central database in each Member State is instrumental to manage information on equidae that are kept in that Member State.