CWD & My Company

[FForF]

Thought some of you might find this interesting. I am a Production Manager at Digital Angel.

Digital Angel Corporation Awarded United States Department of Agriculture Contracts to Supply 300,000 RFID e.Tags™
Tuesday October 7, 9:46 am ET
Traceability System to Assist in Eradication Efforts to Stop Spread of Fatal Diseases in Sheep, Elk and Deer

SOUTH ST. PAUL, Minn., Oct. 7 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Digital Angel Corp. (Nasdaq: DOC - News) has received orders from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) for more than 300,000 proprietary RFID animal tags and implantable microchips for use in Federal programs to study and eventually eradicate transmissible neurological conditions found in captive deer, elk and domestic sheep.

This new technology could enable health officials to quickly link a diseased animal with others of the same lineage or prior groupings so they can be isolated before they contaminate other animals.

Digital Angel Corp. officials said the RFID products selected by the USDA for its program are similar to those being evaluated by livestock producers to comply with industry initiatives and pending government regulations that call for "state of the art" tracking systems to electronically trace the birth origin, diet and movement of animals throughout their life cycle.

The USDA will use Digital Angel Corp. RFID proprietary systems in its program to eradicate Scrapie in sheep and Chronic Wasting Disease in captive deer and elk. These diseases have significant financial implications to producers, processors and retail outlets.

Digital Angel Corp. has been a leader in the U.S. animal identification market since establishing the Fearing brand identification in 1945, and is committed to developing technology to meet industry demands and challenges. The company's products have been approved by the Canadian's Cattlemen Identification Association (CCIA) and other domestic and international food traceability programs.
Digital Angel Corp.'s products and systems are uniquely positioned for this emerging industry. Its animal identification systems feature patented RFID implantable microchips, e.Tags™, scanning systems, global positioning, biosensors and software for frictionless data collection. Digital Angel Corp. systems also will help meat producing and processing companies to deal not only with food safety issues, but also herd efficiency goals and the information demands of consumer-branded meat products.

In addition to being a valuable food safety verification tool, the computerized systems allow producers to automatically collect, report and store data on individual animals, personnel, and husbandry practices. Among the specific benefits are: (1) individual animal quality and productivity reports; (2) inventory control and supply chain management; (3) herd health journals; (4) carcass-tracking; and (5) individual and farm labor efficiency reports.
The system also incorporates the latest in wireless technology, web-enabled PDAs and database design to provide utility and scalability. It provides "real-time" reports for immediate decisions, trend analyses and performance assessments.

 

[paulc]

Mike, thats cool that you company is involved with helping solve this problem. keep us posted.
paul

 

[Docwells2000]

Hmmm...looks like "Big Brother" will be watching the herds. I can see it now...tracking your 'target' buck before the season opener...

 

[FForF]

It is not a GPS tracking device, although we have been asked to develop a GPS collar that will transmit location, speed, direction of travel, altitude, etc, using a satelite cellular modem, to the DFG's laptop. You really worried about big brother. We chip humans also. Big business in South America. But of course if you think the government hasn't had this technology and more for 2 decades you are really fooling yourself.

http://www.digitalangel.net/works_demo.asp

This is just a chip the size of a grain of rice that is inserted under the skin and when the animal comes within a few feet of a scanner it emits a ID number. This number is put into a data base that has all the genetic information and anything else they want to keep on the animal.

Millions of them are put into Salmon and Steelhead every year and they are scanned as they go through the dams and at the hatchery. The DFG also collects them at the dock form the sport fishing fleet. They have been used in endangered birds, reptiles, etc , also.

Here is a picture of DFG agent Paul Hoppe collecting the fish heads that have my chips in them from salmon my sister and I caught out of Half Moon Bay this year.

 

[cincoflatspirate]

Thank's for the stock tip.

 

[hunthog]

Now if you can just find a way that I can get a big one automatically tied off to a tree 20 yards from my stand the night before the opener I might make an investment.

hunthog

 

[FForF]

No Kidding. Went again this weekend and had deer running all around me. Just out of range

Finally got up on three at 35 yards and a dang vine grabbed my bow. Spooked the deer trying to get it free. Had a buddy throw a arrow at one at 25 yards and hit a tree branch. Second time for him hitting a tree. Calling him the bark killer now.

Had a riot of pigs (10 +) running arround under my stand 5 minutes after I couldn't see my pins any more. Going to get at least one of them pigs Nov 15th (rut hunt) with a scope light I bought. Legal in Texas. Hunt deer and pigs all day then put on the scope mounted light and hunt the pigs all night. Great state Texas.

Great fun!