What is the TVD?
The Tierverkehrsdatenbank (TVD) is Switzerland's central database for livestock and their movements. It is operated through the agate.ch portal and exists to make animals traceable, for example in the event of an epidemic.
If you keep cattle, sheep, goats or pigs, you are legally required to report certain events within fixed deadlines. This applies to every holding, hobby keeper or professional breeder alike.
Which notifications does the keeper file?
The animal disease ordinance (TSV Art. 14 para. 2) lists exhaustively what you report yourself:
| Notification | When | Deadline |
|---|---|---|
| Birth notification | A lamb, kid or calf is born on your holding | 30 days |
| Arrival notification | An animal comes onto your holding (purchase, return) | 3 working days |
| Departure notification | An animal leaves your holding (sale, slaughter, alp, transfer) | 3 working days |
| Death notification | An animal dies on your holding | 3 working days |
For pigs you only report the arrival, as a group with a head count. When pigs leave, you report nothing at all.
Important: The slaughter notification is always filed by the slaughterhouse, for every species. You report the departure with the reason «Slaughter» instead. That is why Herdy no longer offers a separate slaughter notification.
Herdy's deadlines are deliberately tighter
Herdy counts three calendar days from the event, while the law says three working days. In every week with a weekend or public holiday the display is therefore slightly earlier than the statutory deadline, never later. A notification Herdy marks red has not necessarily missed the legal deadline yet. You will find the same note in the deadline widget on the TVD overview.
The sections of the TVD module
The module is organised into tabs:
- Overview: Upcoming deadlines, quick actions, statistics, recent notifications and the sync history.
- Notifications: The notification log with everything open and everything done, and the way to a new notification.
- Batch notification: Arrival, departure or death for several animals in one run.
- Lookup: Scan animals and see their herd and TVD status without filing anything.
- Import: Bring your herd in from the TVD or from a CSV file.
- Ear tags: The ear tag stock the TVD holds for your holding.
- Pigs: The group-based arrival notification for pigs. The tab only appears when your herd contains pigs.
- Settings: Agate connection, linked holding and synchronisation.
Alpine summering has been its own module with its own navigation since summer 2026. You will find it in the sidebar right below «TVD».
Requirements
Before Herdy can send notifications to the TVD you need:
- A Herdy account with a holding set up.
- An agate.ch account, which you connect under TVD > Settings. You sign in on agate.ch itself, your password is never entered in Herdy.
- A linked TVD holding. After signing in you choose which of your Agate holdings belongs to this Herdy farm.
While any of these is missing, Herdy shows an amber notice at the top of the TVD overview with the way to fix it. The instructions are under Setting up the TVD connection.
What the interface cannot do today
A few notifications are blocked at the TVD interface. Herdy says so in the relevant form and names the alternative:
- Arrival notifications for goats are switched off at the interface. File them in the TVD web portal on agate.ch. This also affects the return of goats from the alp, which is technically an arrival.
- Slaughter notifications cannot be filed by any animal keeper, see above.
- Ordering ear tags still happens on agate.ch. Herdy shows the stock but does not order.
Tip: If you do not have an agate.ch account yet, request one from your cantonal veterinary office or directly from identitas.ch.