71.22—Removal and loss of official identification devices.
Official identification devices are intended to provide permanent identification of livestock and to ensure the ability to find the source of animal disease outbreaks. Removal of these devices, including devices applied to imported animals in their countries of origin and recognized by the Administrator as official, is prohibited except at the time of slaughter. If an official identification device is lost and it is necessary to retag an animal with a new official number, every effort should be made to correlate the new official number with the previous official number of the animal. If an official identification device applied to an imported animal in its country of origin is lost following importation into the United States, the animal may only be retagged with an official identification device using a numbering system other than an animal identification number beginning with the 840 prefix.