Digital Angel, a technology company in the field of animal identification and emergency identification solutions, announced it is experiencing higher demand for electronic identification products in Canada as a result of recent animal health and traceability incentive programs and regulations.
Digital Angel, a technology company in the field of animal identification and emergency identification solutions, announced it is experiencing higher demand for electronic identification products in Canada as a result of recent animal health and traceability incentive programs and regulations.
Orders for electronic identification tags and readers from Compass Animal Health, the company's exclusive Canadian partner, have increased by 30 percent year-over-year.
“We have a relationship with our Canadian partner, Compass Animal Health, which has provided us with a channel to meet the increasing demand for electronic identification tags throughout the country,” said Dan Ellsworth, VP of Sales and Marketing, Digital Angel.
Federal regulation requires that all Canadian cattle be tagged with an approved RFID tag prior to moving from their current location or leaving their farm of origin. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) is enforcing the national identification and movement reporting requirements for cattle under the authority of the Health of Animals Regulations.
Additionally, there are several regional and federal programs with age-verification incentives and equipment subsidies supporting the transition to electronic identification. These programs have been put in to place to provide vital age and source information to the Canadian Cattle Identification Program (CCIA) to have more Canadian cattle qualify for export to countries with age and source requirements and to help prevent, prepare, respond, and recover from a disease outbreak.
Eligible cattle producers who register birth and source information into the Canadian livestock tracking system are entitled to receive incentive rebates/discounts when purchasing CCIA-approved RFID tags from CCIA authorized retailers.
One of the keys in the success of these programs is the tracking of tags through the distribution channel to the producer. Compass Animal Health works with a network of more than 1,200 dealers throughout Canada, and has systems and procedures in place to ensure data accuracy related to tags is maintained. In addition to these procedures Compass Animal Health has several dedicated staff members to the CCIA program.
“Interest, call volumes and orders for RFID tags and reading equipment are at an all-time high from one end of Canada to the other. We expect the increased demand trend to continue right through 2011,” said Robert Taylor, President of Compass Animal Health.