The list of states accepting equine passports is growing longer as Florida is implementing its own passport program in order to fulfill state and federal initiatives as part of the National Animal Identification System (NAIS). Greg Christy, DVM, state coordinator for the Florida State Agricultural Response Team, discussed Florida’s new equine ID cards for intrastate and interstate movement at the National Institute for Animal Agriculture’s annual conference held April 3-7 in St. Paul, Minn.

“It’s like a horse driver’s license, and the same size as a credit card,” said Christy. “The two-sided, laminated card has full-color digital images of horse, owner contact information, horse information (name, breed, sex, age, and proof of negative equine infectious anemia, or EIA, test), and the veterinarian’s name and phone number. A premises ID number is also linked to each horse issued a card.”

Although the passport program is a voluntary alternative to paper documents required for traveling, it is supposed to be a service to horse owners who frequently travel with their horses so they do not have to carry numerous papers for each horse, as well as a means of tracking horses in the event of a disease outbreak.

“With 23 stations along Florida highways that check for proper equine documentation when traveling,” says Christy, “we can quarantine disease cases by not allowing them in or out of an area