Pet Microchip IDs Need Standardized Tech, U.S. Government Says

Maryann Mott
for National Geographic News

November 15, 2005

Last week U.S. President George Bush signed a bill that includes
language calling for microchip-identification technology that will work
for all pets across the country.

These tiny microchips have been implanted in about 5 percent of the U.S. pet population.

Using a scanner, shelter workers can read a chip's maker and unique number. They can then call the chip manufacturer's registry to get the pet owner's name and phone number.

The high-tech identification devices are credited with reuniting hundreds of thousands of pets with their families.

But in recent years the industry has been plagued with controversy because of competing and incompatible technologies on the market.

Companies selling chips have been using four different frequencies—134 kilohertz (kHz), 128 kHz, 125 kHz nonencrypted, and 125 kHz encrypted.

Each chip works with a scanner tuned to the chip's frequency. A universal scanner that detects all of the chips is not available in the U.S., even though the technology exists.

By signing the 2006 Agriculture Appropriations Bill, President Bush has charged the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, the federal agency in charge of animal-welfare issues, to remedy the problem.

The agency has 90 days from the time the bill was signed to develop regulations that would require all scanners to read all chips.

ISO Chips

The incompatibility of microchip technologies has been hampering efforts to reunite some lost animals with their families.

In one case, an eight-month-old pit bull implanted with a chip disappeared from his Virginia home and was picked up by an animal-control agent. But the shelter's scanner failed to detect the animal's chip.

After going unclaimed for ten days, the dog was euthanized. Thirty minutes later its owner tracked the dog down and contacted the shelter.

Animal health and welfare organizations say that until now companies have blocked universal microchip technology in favor of focusing on maintaining their market shares and profit margins.

"The system that we have in place in the United States is not working," said Daniel Aja, president of the American Animal Hospital Association.

Aja refuses to implant microchips in pets at his private veterinary practice in Michigan. He says he cannot guarantee clients that if their animal is lost, the organization that found the pet will be able to read the chip.

"What we tell people is the best form of identification—and best chance to get your pet back to you in this day and age in the United States—is a collar and tag," he said.

Many pet-health organizations advocate implanting animals with only one type of chip: the International Standards Organization (ISO) 134.2 kHz chip.

The Coalition for Reuniting Pets and Families, a federation of animal-care organizations formed last year, says ISO microchips are the national standard in Canada and many European nations and should be the same in the U.S.

The coalition also supports requiring a universal scanner that could read chips at any frequency.

Hannis Stoddard, president of AVID, a manufacturer of 125 kHz pet microchips, said one scanner should be able to read all chips.

But, he says, standardizing the technology could put the 15 million pets already implanted with 125 kHz chips at a disadvantage.

"When you try to make a reader that reads both 125 kHz and 134.2 kHz … then that reader will read both tags much less efficiently in terms of distance and speed," Stoddard said.

Over the years AVID has distributed about 75,000 scanners to shelters nationwide. Those scanners cannot be reprogrammed to read ISO chips, he said, and to replace them would cost about 20 million U.S. dollars.

The firm successfully lobbied to prevent the new bill from making ISO chips a national standard in the U.S.

Yesterday the Digital Angel Corporation announced it will sell a new scanner later this month that can read 125 kHz encrypted and nonencrypted chips and detect the presence of ISO chips.

If an ISO chip is detected, though, another scanner is still needed to read the identification number and obtain the owner's contact information.

Costly Technology

Right now most U.S. pet owners don't use the technology because of high costs, says Karen Johnson, vice president of the Banfield pet hospital chain, headquartered in Portland, Oregon.

On average, veterinarians charge $65 (U.S.) to implant a microchip. Owners must also pay a one-time $15 registration fee.

"It's a significant dollar outlay," Johnson said. "And if you don't think your pet is ever going to get lost, then it's easy to make the decision not to do it—even though it's not the right decision."

Banfield, a privately owned chain of 500 veterinary hospitals throughout the country, supports the transition to ISO chips and sold the technology for a few months in 2004.

After a series of complaints, the firm says it won't sell the chips again until scanners that can read all chips can be distributed to shelters.

Surveys show that 30,000 readers are needed nationwide to replace the current infrastructure before a transition to the ISO chip can take place, according to the Coalition for Reuniting Pets and Families.

Last year Iams, a pet-food manufacturer, agreed to donate five million U.S. dollars to buy the necessary scanners for shelters but then took back the offer.

"We simply couldn't step into a situation with such a high likelihood of litigation," said Iams spokesperson Kelly Vanasse.

"That—coupled with the fact that the technology wasn't where it needed to be to read all chips at an acceptable distance for the shelter community—has held back the possibility of a donation [from Iams]."

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