How cattle and buffalo movement permits work in Thailand

A buyer two provinces away wants three of your heifers. Or you have found a good bull at a farm across the provincial line and want to bring him home. The deal is done, the truck is booked. Then a neighbour asks, "Did you get the permit?"

This post answers the questions a farmer actually asks about moving cattle and buffalo in Thailand, one at a time, in plain words. Each answer links to the law or the government document it comes from, so you can check it yourself. It is not legal advice. Rules on the ground can change when a disease zone is announced, so your district livestock office (ปศุสัตว์อำเภอ) always has the final word.

Q: Which law covers moving animals?

The main law is the Animal Epidemics Act B.E. 2558 (2015) (พระราชบัญญัติโรคระบาดสัตว์ พ.ศ. 2558). It replaced the old Animal Epidemics Act of B.E. 2499 (1956) and its 1999 amendment (Act, sections 1 to 3, English translation on the MOAC website). A memo of the Office of the Council of State records that the Act came into force on 3 March 2015 (Council of State memo 1004/2559).

The Act is organised in chapters on preventing and controlling epidemics, licences, suspending and revoking licences, the powers of veterinarians and inspectors, sale by public auction and cash rewards, appeals, and penalties (chapter headings in the English translation).

Two details in the Act matter to every cattle and buffalo farmer:

• "Animal" in the Act includes cow and buffalo, and also their semen and embryos (section 4).
• The listed "epidemics" include diseases cattle people know well: foot and mouth disease, anthrax, hemorrhagic septicemia, tuberculosis and brucellosis, with more diseases added by ministerial notification (section 4).

Q: Do I really need a permit just to sell to another province?

Yes. Section 34 says that anyone who takes cattle or buffalo (among other animals) to another province must give the animals an identification mark and must obtain a licence from the local veterinarian at the place of departure, each time (section 34). The same applies to semen and embryos of these animals and to carcasses.

Three words in that section are worth reading slowly:

• "Each time." A permit is for one move. It is not a yearly pass.
• "Place of departure." You apply where the animals start, not where they are going.
• "Identification mark." The animals must be marked so officers can tell them apart from other animals on the road. The Council of State explains that this marking lets officers check moved animals, keep them from being mixed up with others, and know their status for disease control (memo 1004/2559).

The veterinarian may also write conditions about the vehicle and the route into the licence (section 34, paragraph three). So read your permit: it may tell you which road to take.

Q: Who runs movement control?

The Department of Livestock Development (DLD, กรมปศุสัตว์), through its Division of Veterinary Inspection and Quarantine. A DLD presentation hosted by the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) lists the division's jobs as domestic movement control, import and export control of animals and animal products, and enforcing the laws (DLD case study on animal movement, WOAH, 2024).

The same presentation counts 59 animal quarantine stations (27 domestic, 22 at borders, 10 at airports and seaports) and 47 permanent internal checkpoints (WOAH, 2024). This is why a truck of cattle can be stopped and asked for papers far from any border.

The law also says a licence holder under section 34 must take the animals through an animal quarantine station following the DLD Director-General's notifications (section 35).

                                                                
                                                                
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___(+)_______(+)(+)_____________________________________________
                                                                
 ---   ---   ---   ---   ---   ---   ---   ---   ---   ---   ---
                                                                

Q: What is e-Movement?

e-Movement is DLD's electronic system for moving animals and carcasses (ระบบเคลื่อนย้ายสัตว์และซากสัตว์ผ่านระบบอิเล็กทรอนิกส์), at newemove.dld.go.th. According to the DLD presentation, it does several useful things (WOAH, 2024):

• It works as a notification system: it shows disease zone announcements and handles requests for permission to enter an area.
• It shows the expiry date and time of each movement document.
• It picks the type of movement document automatically, based on the kind of animal or product, disease notifications, and the origin and destination.

The presentation also shows how a live-animal move works on paper: the farmer fills in the R1/2 form (แบบ ร.1/2), a provincial or district livestock officer or an animal quarantine station handles it, and a movement document is issued. The document type depends on the zone. In the deck's live-animal diagram, an R4 is handled by the office at the origin, while an R3 or R5 also involves the livestock officer or quarantine station at the destination (WOAH, 2024):

For most ordinary moves, between areas with no announcement, you are looking at an R4.

Q: How long is my movement document valid?

According to the DLD presentation, a domestic movement document is valid for 48 hours after it is issued, and e-Movement shows the expiry time (WOAH, 2024).

In practice this means timing matters. Don't get the document days before the buyer is ready. Agree on the pickup day first, then apply, so the truck leaves inside the window.

                                                
 ┌────────────────────────────────────────────┐ 
 │                        MOVEMENT PERMIT     │ 
 │                                            │ 
 │         ···0···        ANIMALS  CATTLE     │ 
 │      ···   │   ···     FROM     FARM A     │ 
 │     ··     │     ··    TO       FARM B     │ 
 │    ·       │       ·                       │ 
 │  36·       o       ·12 VALID    48 h       │ 
 │    ·               ·   LEFT     48 h       │ 
 │     ··           ··                        │ 
 │      ···       ···            .----.       │ 
 │         ··24···               | VET|       │ 
 │                               '----'       │ 
 └────────────────────────────────────────────┘ 
                                                

Q: What is a "disease zone", and how does it change things?

When there is an outbreak, or to protect a disease-free area, the authorities can announce zones. The Act gives the power to different people:

• A veterinarian can announce a temporary epidemic zone up to 5 kilometres around the place where the disease was found, valid for 30 days. The notice is posted at the district office, the subdistrict administrative organisation, the municipal office, the kamnan's office, the village headman's office and community places (section 20).
• A provincial governor can announce an epidemic zone or epidemic surveillance zone for all or part of a province where a disease exists or is suspected (section 21).
• The Minister can announce epidemic control, epidemic-free and buffer zones (section 17).

Once a zone is announced, the animals named in the announcement need a written permission for each move:

• into or through a Minister's zone (control, free or buffer), from the Director-General or a veterinarian he entrusts (section 18);
• into, out of, through or within a temporary epidemic zone, epidemic zone or surveillance zone, from the veterinarian responsible for that zone (section 22).

Does a zone permission replace the normal permit? No. In 2016 the Council of State gave its opinion that even with written permission under sections 18 or 22, a move to another province still needs the section 34 licence from the veterinarian at the place of departure (memo 1004/2559).

A simple habit helps here: before any sale, look at the notice board at your village headman's or subdistrict office, and ask the district livestock office if there is a zone on your route.

Q: What if one of my animals is sick?

Then it should not go on a truck. The Act tells owners to notify a competent official, inspector or veterinarian within 12 hours of knowing that an animal is sick or dead from an epidemic or an unknown cause, or when animals in the same village or nearby fall sick or die with the same signs within seven days. The owner must keep sick animals where they are, and nobody may move them, unless the animals are handled as the Director-General's notifications prescribe, or a veterinarian has checked and found it is not an epidemic, or has said otherwise (section 11).

Selling a sick animal quickly "before it gets worse" is exactly how a disease travels from one district to the next.

Q: What happens if I move animals without a permit?

The penalties are written in the Act. As the text stands in the English translation:

There is also a cost many people forget: when a court punishes someone under sections 65, 71 or 72 (among others), it can order the forfeiture of the animals, the vehicle and the equipment used, unless they belong to someone who had no part in the offence (section 78). Offences punishable only by a fine or by up to one year in prison can be settled by the Director-General or a person he appoints (section 77).

Penalty amounts can be changed by later laws, so treat this table as a guide to how seriously the law takes it, and ask your livestock office about the current rules.

Q: Why does the government care so much?

Because animals walk diseases around. The Council of State described the Act's purpose as protecting people's lives and property and the country's economy, by preventing and controlling epidemics that can spread fast and need control at several levels and steps (memo 1004/2559).

Seen from the farm, a permit is not only paperwork for you. It is how your district finds out quickly where animals came from if a disease appears, and how your neighbours' herds stay safe from a truck that should never have left.

Q: What should I prepare before the truck comes?

A practical checklist, built from the rules above:

1. Agree on the pickup date with the buyer first. The document is valid for 48 hours after issue, so apply close to the day.
2. Contact the livestock office at the place of departure (your district office or the quarantine station) and ask which forms and papers they need for your animals. The request starts with the R1/2 form.
3. Have the buyer's details ready: name and the destination address. The system uses the origin and destination to decide the document type.
4. Make sure every animal has its identification mark, as section 34 requires.
5. Bring your animal health records, such as vaccination history, in case the officer asks for them.
6. Check for disease zones on the origin, destination and route. If there is one, you need written permission for the zone as well as the normal licence.
7. Only healthy animals go. If any animal is sick, report it and keep it home.
8. Read the conditions on the licence (vehicle, route) and follow them, including passing through the animal quarantine station if required.
9. Plan for office hours. If you want a licence processed outside official working hours, on a holiday or away from the office, the Act says you must arrange the vehicle and pay compensation and other expenses at the rate set by ministerial regulation (section 36).
10. Keep a copy of the permit with the truck driver for the whole trip.

Q: What about new tracking tools?

You may hear about newer digital tools for following animal movement. I could not find a primary DLD document describing them in detail, so I will leave that for a later post rather than guess. What is documented is e-Movement, described above.

The short version

• Moving cattle or buffalo to another province needs a licence from the veterinarian where the trip starts, every time, and the animals must be marked.
• Disease zones add a written permission on top; they do not replace the normal licence.
• A domestic movement document is valid for 48 hours after it is issued.
• Sick animals stay home, and the livestock office hears about them within 12 hours.
• Getting it wrong can cost a fine, jail time, and even the animals and the truck. Getting it right protects your whole district.

Sources

• Animal Epidemics Act B.E. 2558 (2015), English translation, Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives
• Office of the Council of State, memo 1004/2559 on section 34 of the Animal Epidemics Act B.E. 2558 (Thai)
• Animal Movement Control in Thailand, DLD Division of Veterinary Inspection and Quarantine (case study, WOAH Asia and the Pacific, 2024)
• DLD e-Movement system
• Photo: A hoard of cattle on the road in Thailand, by Angkun-ane, Wikimedia Commons, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0; resized and converted to WebP
• Photo: A grass field and cattle in countryside of Thailand, by Earng.oi, Wikimedia Commons, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0; resized and converted to WebP
• Photo of buffalo in water: Farmeral Technology