A microchip implant is an identifying integrated circuit placed under the skin of a dog, cat, horse, or other animal. The chips are about the size of a large grain of rice and are based on a passive RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) technology.
The use of externally attached microchip devices such as RFID enabled ear tags (piercings rather than implants) is another, related method commonly used for identifying farm and ranch animals other than horses. In some cases the external microchips may be readable on the same scanner as the implanted style.
Uses and benefits
Microchips have been particularly useful in the return of lost pets. They can also assist where the ownership of an animal is in dispute.
Animal shelters and animal control centers benefit using microchip identification products by more quickly and efficiently returning pets to their owners. When a pet can be quickly matched to its owner, the shelter avoids the expense of housing, feeding, providing medical care, and outplacing or euthanizing the pet. Microchipping is becoming increasingly standard at shelters: many require all outplaced animals to receive a microchip, and provide the service as part of the adoption package. Animal control officers are trained and equipped to scan animals.
In addition to shelters and veterinarians, microchips are used by kennels, breeders, brokers, trainers, registries, rescue groups, humane societies, clinics, farms, stables, animal clubs and associations, researchers and pet stores.
Several countries require a microchip when importing an animal to prove that the animal and the vaccination record match. Microchip tagging may also be required for CITES-regulated international trade in certain rare animals; for example, Asian Arowana are so tagged, in order to ensure that only captive-bred fish are imported.
System of recovery
Effective pet identification and recovery depends on the following:
- A pet owner either adopts a pet at a shelter that microchips some or all adoptee animals, or the owner with an existing pet brings it to a veterinarian (or a shelter) that provides the service.
- The shelter or veterinarian selects a microchip from their stock, makes a note of that chip's unique ID, and then inserts the chip into the animal with a syringe. The injection requires no anesthetic.
- Before sending the animal home, the vet or shelter performs a test scan on the animal. This helps ensure that the chip will be picked up by a scanner, and that its unique identifying number will be read correctly.
- An enrollment form is completed with the chip number, the pet owner's contact information, the name and description of the pet, the shelter's and/or veterinarian's contact information, and an alternate emergency contact designated by the pet owner. (Some shelters or vets, however, choose to designate themselves as the primary contact, and take the responsibility of contacting the owner directly. This allows them to be kept informed about possible problems with the animals they place.) The form is then sent to a registry keeper to be entered into its database. Depending on regional custom, selected chip brand, and the pet owner's preference, this registry keeper might be the chip's manufacturer or distributor, or an independent provider. In some countries a single official national database may be used. After receiving a registration fee, the registry keeper typically provides a 24-hour, toll-free telephone service for pet recovery, good for the life of the pet.
- The pet owner is also provided the chip ID and the contact information of the recovery service. This is often in the form of a collar tag imprinted with the chip ID and the recovery service's toll-free number, to be worn by the animal along with a certified registration certificate that can be sold/transferred with the pet. This ensures proper identification when an animal is sold or traded. A microchipped animal being sold or traded without a matching certificate could be a stolen animal.
- If the pet is lost or stolen, and is found by local authorities or taken to a shelter, it is scanned during intake to see if a chip exists. If one is detected, authorities call the recovery service and provide them the ID number, the pet's description, and the location of the animal. If the pet is wearing the collar tag, anyone who finds the pet can call the toll-free number, making it unnecessary to involve the authorities. (The owner can also preemptively notify the recovery service directly if a pet disappears. This is useful if the pet is stolen, and is taken to a vet who scans it and checks with the recovery service.)
- The recovery service notifies the owner that the pet has been found, and where to go to recover the animal.
Many veterinarians perform test scans on microchipped animals every time the animal is brought in for care. This ensures the chip still performs properly. Vets sometimes use the chip ID as the pet's ID in their databases, and print this number on all outgoing paperwork associated with its services, such as receipts, test results, vaccination certifications, and descriptions of medical or surgical procedures.
Central Microchip Registration Lookup
In September 2009, the American Animal Hospital Association (AAHA) launched the Web site petmicrochiplookup.org. This free Web site allows a person, such as a veterinarian or shelter personnel, to enter a microchip number of a found pet, and searches four of the major U.S. microchip manufacturers/registries in real time to determine which registry(ies) the pet is enrolled with. The founding participating organizations are AKC CAR, Home Again, Bayer, and PetLink.
Components of a microchip
Microchips are passive, or inert, RFID devices and contain no internal power source. They are designed so that they do not act until acted upon.
Most microchips comprise three basic elements: A silicon chip (integrated circuit); a coil inductor, or a core of ferrite wrapped in copper wire; and a capacitor. The silicon chip contains the identification number, plus electronic circuits to relay that information to the scanner. The inductor acts as a radio antenna, ready to receive electrical power from the scanner. The capacitor and inductor act as a tuner, forming an LC circuit. The scanner presents an inductive field that excites the coil and charges the capacitor, which in turn energizes and powers the IC. The IC then transmits the data via the coil to the scanner.
These components are encased in a special biocompatible glass made from soda lime, and hermetically sealed to prevent any moisture or fluid entering the unit. Barring rare complications, dogs and cats are not affected physically or behaviorally by the presence of a chip in their bodies.
Cross-compatibility and Standards Issues
For years, questions of controversy have surrounded each of the four common microchip types (also known as transmission protocols or standards) used in pets, to the point that especially in the U.S., some pet owners may have delayed getting the implant done for fear of getting the wrong type.
Increasingly, conscientious vets and especially shelters in the U.S. are making it standard practice to scan for all four common pet-chip types, enabled by the long-awaited availability of four-protocol scanners that do it all at once. (Although apparently no law requires them to scan for even one type before disposing of an animal.) The various issues of debate still have importance, however, as the pet owner does still have a choice of the four types.
- The ISO Conformant Full Duplex type is the pet chip type with the most international acceptance, being common in many countries including those of Europe since the late 1990s, and now widely adopted in Canada. It is one of two chip protocol types (along with the "Half Duplex" type sometimes used in farm and ranch animals) which conform to International Organization for Standardization, or ISO, standards 11784 and 11785. To support international/multivendor application, each of these chips contains either a manufacturer code (99 manufacturer codes from 900 to 998 are supported.) or a country code (Values below 900 are assigned as country codes.) along with its main identifying serial number. In the U.S., the distributing organizations that introduced this type of pet chip have faced controversy. When 24PetWatch.com in 2003 and more famously Banfield Pet Hospitals in 2004 began distributing them, many shelter scanners in use couldn't read them. (Some still can't; asking local shelters about this may be a good idea even today.) At least one of the Banfield-chipped pets was discovered to have been needlessly euthanized, and Americans debated the cause. Specifically, did this happen because "foreign" chips were sold to unsuspecting pet owners, or because scanners which were passed off as a Shelter-Grade product couldn't cope with "internationally standardized" chips? Or maybe both? On June 30, 2009, an alert Editor reported being told by a HomeAgain manager that U.S. HomeAgain would start distributing the ISO chip type exclusively as of July 2009. HomeAgain.com has been requested to confirm or deny this in its FAQ file. If true, the tip would be noteworthy because, although ISO capable scanners were more common in the U.S. by 2009, HomeAgain's own vet and shelter scanners distributed from 1995 through most of 2005 are sti
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