University of Florida Improves Lab-Animal Tracking

With the new system, the department of animal-care services staff fit each cage with an EPC Gen 2 passive UHF tag, provided by Dynasys (and made with TI's EPC Gen 2 chip). Each cage tag number is associated with details about the specific research project in which the animals housed in the cage are involved, and with the researcher leading the project, in a Web-based back-end system hosted by the University of Florida. Also attached to each cage is a protocol card printed with information about the research, as well as the housing agreement and cage ID number.

To conduct inventory, a staff member pushes a cart, carrying a mobile Intermec EPC Gen 2 RFID interrogator and a laptop running Dynasys software, past the cages, capturing the tags' unique ID numbers. The employee performing the inventory can view a real-time count of how many and which cages should be located in the room, and whether the RFID tags read match what is expected. If a cage is identified that should not be in the room, or if cages come up missing, the software generates an alert.

August Battles

At the end of each inventory process, Dynasys' software puts the complete inventory data in a format for use by the accounting department, then transmits it to the school's Web-based back-end system via a Wi-Fi connection. From there, animal-care services administrators can access the report to appropriately bill the housing costs of animals based on tag reads, or begin investigating a missing cage. Researchers can also access data by logging onto the Web site and inputting a password and research ID number.

The return on UF's investment in the system occurred almost immediately, simply from labor savings, says Bob Scher, Dynasys' CEO. The cost of outfitting a research lab the size of UF's with the system, including hardware, software and installation is typically about $100,000, Scher says, but can be more, depending on the size of the facility.

Since the UF system was installed, says Evan Hochman, UF's IT director for animal-care services, the accuracy rate—that is, the specific cages reported to be in UF custody that actually are in the college's possession —has gone from 60 percent to 99 percent.