of the certified purebred class because they do not comply with the French HBL requirement of being Full French. Base animals selected for the two-stage grading up process to any EU herd book purebred class require a minimum of 3/4 Limousin content. Graded up females using the two-stage process then become eligible for entry into the main section of all EU herd book purebred classes as initial registration (or T.I.) Limousins when they reach 15/16 Limousin content. They are then legally identified as Limousin (i.e. 100% Limousin) – the breed code 34 often substitutes for the word Limousin in French discussions and reports on cattle breeding. Only the Certified Purebred sub-class 2 and Registered Purebred class are identified as Limousin in France because cattle of non-Limousin origin had been introduced into the supplementary section of the Pureblood class. The growth and spread of the Limousin breed in France since the early 1980s meant that a past practice of selecting a base female on appearance alone was no longer a guarantee of its breed origin because of the potential for "crossing absorption". Base females inadvertently assessed as Limousin and recorded as T.I. animals in the main section of the Pureblood class included Parthenais and Charolais, which were presumably the source of the double-muscling genes found in the French Limousin Pureblood population. In 2008, the double muscling gene had been found in 3% of active bulls in France. Currently, only cattle recorded in the French Limousin Certified Purebred sub-class 2 and Registered Purebred class satisfy the requirements of EU law on herd books and can be transferred as Limousins, including indirectly through their genetics (for example semen and embryos), to other EU countries and recorded in the respective herd books. Outside of the EU, the rules and regulations of Limousin breed associations do not yet differentiate between the French Pureblood and Purebred classes, with the Pureblood class remaining the origin of, and standard for, the purest form of Limousin. Since the 1960s and until 2008, the French Pureblood class defined the standard against which Limousins throughout the world were measured. Although it would seem appropriate to preserve the integrity of the herd-book as the international Limousin breed standard by preventing the EU-mandated entry of animals that do not meet the Full French standard, restrictions to such entries remain forbidden under EU law and subsequent interpretations by the European Court of Justice. Immediately