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AIM Global (a trade association for automatic identification and mobility) has announced the development of a Draft Standard for "RFID Identification for Food Animals".
On the instructions of the AIM Global Standards Advisory group, a subcommittee of the AIM North America Standards Committee developed the draft standard to extend the current capabilities of RFID animal identification.
The draft standard incorporates existing ISO standards for low frequency (LF) RFID (ISO 11784, ISO 11785, ISO 14223-1), and ultra high frequency (ISO/IEC 18000-6, ISO/IEC 15961, ISO/IEC 15434) and defines expanded data content for Ultrahigh Frequency (UHF) RFID (860-960 MHz) tags. It was developed to address concerns about animal traceability in light of the threat of terrorist attacks on the food chain and the recent outbreaks of both "mad cow" and hoof-and-mouth disease in different parts of the world.
According to the subcommittee chair, Bill Hoffman (of Advanced ID Corp.), the purpose of the proposed standard is to provide two standards-based approaches to animal identification. "The document includes the existing LF coding standards and focuses on providing additional capability through the use of ISO/IEC standards-based UHF RFID tags," Hoffman said.
Current ISO animal identification standards provide for a globally-unique identification number that permits tracking of an animal via a simple database lookup. The draft standard incorporates the use of UHF RFID with expanded memory capacities, along with UHF's greater range, to allow information about the animal's history and condition to be placed in the RFID ear tag on the animal itself. According to AIM, this will eliminate the need to look up that data in a remote database - an option that may not be available "in the field" (pun intended) - and can provide immediate information about each animal's birth location, medication record, and other relevant data.
AIM Global's president, Dan Mullen, reports that the draft RFID animal identification standard is now being reviewed by the AIM Global Standards Advisory Group with a view to publication as an official AIM standard. It will also be submitted to ANSI under the Accredited Standards Organisation method.
Hoffman also pointed out that a recent press release announced a low frequency tag for animal identification, having 512 bits of memory. During the review period, the group will evaluate this information and determine the feasibility of incorporating this technical advancement into the document.
Anyone interested in seeing the document can contact the AIM office to request a copy, via its web site.
Source: AIM Global
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