This article was originally published by RFID Update.
February 24, 2005—In an effort to combat the threat of bio-terrorism and diseases like mad cow and hoof-and-mouth, the automatic identification and mobility trade association AIM Global has drafted a standard for the RFID tagging of cattle. The standard, which will be submitted to ANSI after internal review by the AIM Global Standards Advisory Group, takes advantage of recent advances in RFID technology to improve the existing methods of animal tracking. Whereas currently animal tracking information is stored in a central repository, RFID capabilities will allow that same information to be encoded on the tag worn by the animal itself, thus providing far quicker access to pertinent information in the event of a crisis.
RFID has long been viewed as the best means of achieving total traceability of animals used for consumption. As the situation has become graver (the devastating mad cow disease epidemic in the mid-nineties from which Britain’s cattle industry still hasn’t fully recovered, recent and periodic cow disease scares, growing concern over food supply-targeted terrorism), RFID’s role in the cattle industry has only increased. With the EU now requiring total traceability and other governments enacting similarly strict regulations, expect that trend to continue.
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