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From livestock management systems to scientific research, RFID can help farmers, ranchers, conservationists, etc. to locate and evaluate their domesticated and non-domesticated assets. There are companies and national schemes utilizing RFID products to identify and track cattle, sheep and other livestock. By placing a tag on the animal, details can be gathered concerning health information, animal movement, or market eligibility. Still other companies and foundations are using RFID transponders to track wildlife and fish in order to better understand migration and/or spawning patterns. These patterns can then be analyzed in a database to learn more about the habits of the wildlife all around us.
The International Standard for Radio Frequency Identification of Animals ISO 11784 /11785 based on 134.2 kHz technology has been strongly supported. Conformity declaration of tags according this standard will be issued by ICAR (International Committee for Animal Recording).
Companion Animal (PET)
There are many reasons to tag household pet. The animal need vaccination for disease that can infect human or the pet could be lost and owner could not find it. The tagging of RFID is the best way to manage this problem. Many countries around the world including Thailand is making it compulsory to tag pet with microchip.
Livestock ID
With increased concern about food safety and the spread of livestock diseases (BSE, FMD, and Scrapie), governments in many countries are mandating the identification of individual animals. The electronic tracking of animals using injectible glass tags, ear tags or boluses, greatly simplifies this process. On the farm, information can be logged for each animal from growth rates and feeding to health stats and breeding. On the road, more information can be stored regarding animal movements. The scheme is to ensure that meat, and its history, can be traced back to the individual animal.
RFID tags are being used to identify millions of livestock animals around the world. These systems track meat and dairy animals, valuable breeding stock and laboratory animals involved in lengthy and expensive research projects. With the chips in an electronic ear tag or inserted into the rectum of ruminant animals, farm management and data collection can be fully automated for such processes as feeding, weighing, disease control, subsidies, and breeding practices as well as quality and tracebility assurance.
Wildlife and Fisheries
There are many reasons to keep up with the patterns and positions of wild animals. Endangered species have been tracked to see why they are dying. Herds have been tracked to show migration habits. But whether the motive is one of preservation or civilization, Radio Frequency Identification can revolutionize the efforts of those who need to monitor wildlife of all kinds.
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