USAHA News
United States Animal Health Association
Contact - Larry Mark - (703) 451-3954 - webmaster@usaha.org


For immediate release:

USAHA SHEEP AND GOAT COMMITTEE HEARS REPORT ON RFID PROJECT

        GREENSBORO, N.C., Oct. 27, 2004 -- A report on a radio frequency 
identification (RFID) program for sheep was presented at the meeting of the USAHA 
Committee on Sheep and Goats here this week.

	The project, which is being carried out in Colorado, is divided into four phases:  
a discovery phase, an implant and tag phase, a tracking phase, and an evaluation phase.  
The project is currently in the tracking phase.

	In January 2004, RFID devices were placed on 150 head of feedlot sheep 45 days 
prior to slaughter and then tracked through slaughter.  The sheep were divided into five 
treatment groups involving under the skin implants placed at the bases of the ear and in 
the caudal fold of the tail or RFID button ear tags.  At slaughter, 148 of the 150 RFID 
devices could be read.  All of the tail implants could be retrieved except for one that had 
fallen out during the final seven days.

	In April 2004, working with three cooperating producers, RFID devices were 
placed on 900 lambs at spring processing time.  Half received an RFID implant in the 
caudal fold of the tail and half received an RFID button ear tag.  Three different 
manufacturers were used for both the implants and the ear tags.  All of the animals also 
received approved scrapie tags.

	These animals have been grazing the rangelands of northern Colorado and 
southern Wyoming for the past six months.  In a recent scan of the animals of one of the 
cooperating producers found the overall retention rate to be about 97 percent with ear 
tags slightly outperforming the implants.  The rest of the animals will be scanned in the 
next few weeks and all will be tracked until the last of them are slaughtered in March 
2005.

	In light of what has been learned, the study has been expanded to look at a 
possible RFID application for on-farm disease management.  RFID ear tags have been 
placed on almost 3,000 head of ewes owned by one of the cooperating producers.  That 
producer is using the RFID devices to streamline a testing and sorting regime designed to 
eliminate Ovine Progressive Pneumonia (OPP) in the ranch flock.

                                                      ###