Report of the Sub-committee on animal identification

The activities of the Subcommittee on Identification since the 2000 ICAR biennial session in Bled, Slovenia are reviewed. The work of the Committee focussed on setting up guidelines and procedures for the testing of identification devices with regard to their conformity to the current ISO standards and their performance in the field. Testing is based on several protocols elaborated by the Committee after discussion with the identification industry and related parties. In the field of Radio Frequency Identification Devices (RFID), 61 transponders of different types have been successfully tested since the beginning of the procedure and may officially be used in animal identification. Tests for ISO compliant readers and for eartags used in official identification programmes are soon to be carried out. In addition, a first draft for an inquiry concerning identification and registration schemes among the ICAR member countries has been prepared. Forthcoming tasks will be the refinement of the guidelines and procedures, the testing of devices and the extension of the agenda to sheep and goat identification matters.