by-Dr.Chandrakiran Sant, International Dairy Management Consultant, Mumbai.
DR. RAJESH KUMAR SINGH, (LIVESTOCK & POULTRY CONSULTANT), JAMSHEDPUR, JHARKHAND,INDIA 9431309542, rajeshsinghvet@gmail.com
An animal identification by means of marking the body was first recorded 3800 years ago in the Code of Hammurabi to prevent thievery (Bowling et al., 2008). Different methods of marking animals were used by Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, and nomadic people of Scandinavia, Asia, Africa and pre-Hispanic Americans for different purposes (Caja et al., 2004). According to Bowling et al. (2008) and Vallat (2009), identification was initially applied to particularly valuable animals such as horses which were used by the Chinese postal system or by Roman charioteers. Following these early beginnings, animal identification and traceability have become widely recognized as essential tools for ensuring the safety of livestock products and facilitating veterinary disease surveillance and control (Blancou, 2001). Lately, animal identification of livestock had been extended to include breeding and production management, control of disease outbreaks, establishment of ownership, and requirement for export and consumer demands (Bowling et al., 2008). Livestock identification and trace back system (LITS), which has been introduced in India through it INAPH program recently.
Radio Frequency Identification (RFID)——-
Radio frequency identification (RFID) is a technology that incorporates the use of electromagnetic or electrostatic coupling in the radio frequency (RF) portion of the electromagnetic spectrum to uniquely identify an object, animal or person. RFID is coming into increasing use in industry as an alternative to the bar code. The advantage of RFID is that it does not require direct contact or line-of-sight scanning.
COMPONENT OF RFID SYSTEM ———–
RFID consist of three components the Transponder, Trans-receiver, Herdsman’s software (Data accumulator) (McAllister et al., 2000). RFID system consists of three components: an antenna and transceiver (often combined into one reader) and a transponder (the tag). The antenna uses radio frequency waves to transmit a signal that activates the transponder. When activated, the tag transmits data back to the antenna. The data is used to notify a programmable logic controller that an action should occur. The action could be as simple as raising an access gate or as complicated as interfacing with a database to carry out a monetary transaction. Low-frequency RFID systems (30 KHz to 500 KHz) have short transmission ranges (generally less than six feet). High-frequency RFID systems (850 MHz to 950 MHz and 2.4 GHz to 2.5 GHz) offer longer transmission ranges (more than 90 feet). In general, the higher the frequency, the more expensive the RFID system. (Hessel et al., 2008)
Transponder —————
A transponder is defined as a wireless communication device that receives and responds to a signal .Transponder is implanted inside the body. Transponder is having silicon chip and an antenna. Silicon chip having 12digits for identification of animal and 3 digits, for country code. There are two types of transponders, which correlate to the two major types of RFID tags. Passive transponders and RFID tags have no• energy source of their own, relying on the energy given off by the reader for the power to respond. Cheaper, passive RFID tags are the most likely to be used for consumer goods. An active transponder or tag has an internal• power source, which it uses to generate a signal in response to a reader. Active transponders are more expensive than passive ones. They can communicate over miles like ordinary radio communications. They are commonly used in navigation system for commercial and private aircraft. There are many uses of this technology around us today, although they are often invisible to users. When a transponder enters a reading zone, its data is captured by a reader and can be transferred through standard interfaces to a host computer, printer, or programmable logic controller for storage or action(Mandeep et al.,2011).There are various types of transponders;
Ear tags ————
The ear tag transponder is one inch in diameter and can be embodied in plastic (Sherwin, 1990; Stark et al., 1998). In addition to the button tags there is a visual tag. However read write technology is also available. Information stored is strictly accordance with the ISO standards.
Bolus ———-
The bolus transponders are covered by a capsule of biomedical glass and injected under the skin (Gruys l., 1993; Lambooij et al., 1995)can be introduce orally into the fore stomach of ruminants (Fallon and Rogers, 1996; Hasker and Bassinet weighted, 1996; Caja et al., 1999) using a balling gun. Bolus is irretrievable until the time of slaughter. Boluses showed higher readability (99.5) than electronic tag (89.8%) (Garin et al.2003).
Collar———-
Electronic collar are similar to that of neck chain, except that have an attached tag with an electronic number that can be read by a scanner. Electronic collars are easy to use, but they can become a dangerous and can cause choking if they are not adjusted properly to the growth of the animal or if they become hooked on protrusions during grazing.
Microchips————–
Microchips are a form of identification that involves the implanting of an electronic chip, with a miniature radio transponder and antenna, under the skin of an animal near the neck between the shoulder blades, or near the base of the ear (Diez et al., 1994). Each of these devices provides the same function, reliability and accuracy, and is intended to last for the lifetime of the cow. The chosen RFID device with tag should be attached to the animal immediately after birth (or several days thereafter) so that information on the can be utilized for farm management practices immediately.
Trans receiver/Reader/Interrogators/Scanner ————-
The trans-receiver is defined as a device which sends electronic signals to the tag, the tag is charged and replies with the stored information. There are two basic readers Portable/Handheld• Fixed reader. The handheld can be powered• by rechargeable battery .
Fixed RFID reader ————–
Fixed RFID reader is used at a position in which a farmer wishes to utilize an animal RFID number on a regular basis. This provides a reliable and robust source of identification. This can be used in conjunction with other devices to enable a subsequent action or series of actions to be performed, or decisions to be automatically made. For example, fixed readers may be utilized for the: Purposes of identifying an animal as soon as it• enters the milking parlor, and subsequently recording the time and date To record a cow’s milk production (in• association with milk meters) To identify cows required for drafting gate• operations etc. Provides the possibility for the basis for a• wide range of optional operations to be conducted within the dairy that require individual identification of cows (e.g. automatic feeding etc).
Portable RFID reader/Handheld reader ————
This may enable actions identification of animals in the field. Portable readers are capable of reading the RFID tag of a animal in the field and displaying the animals RFID number on a small digital screen in-built into the portable reader, and possibly providing an audible reading of the identification number e.g. the All flex Compact Reader. A portable RFID reader could be attached to a personal digital assistant (PDA), which is loaded with herd management software and the data stored on the farms central herd management software application can be copied to this PDA – effectively providing a mobile copy of the herd information. Utilizing this arrangement, the farmer can then scan a cows RFID tag with the portable RFID scanner and the identity and information pertaining to the animal can be provided on the screen of the PDA. The farmer can then use the PDA similar to how they would utilize their host desktop computer, being able to browse the animal’s information and also be able to record and update animal information on-site. For example, a farmer could give animal a penicillin injection – to record this, they simply scan the RFID tag of the treated cow, then use their PDA to record the details of that injection. Such data recording and updates may be immediately reflected in the central herd management software if the portable device has a direct network link to it (e.g. wireless network). Alternatively, if a direct link to the software is not possible, the updated information could be retained in the portable device, and uploaded to the herd management database at a later time when the device can gain a direct link to the network (i.e. transfer via network cable). Either way, the farmer will be receiving the benefits of being able to easily and rapidly retrieve and view data in the field, while also enabling simple, accurate and timely data recording. Such an arrangement would also remove the duplication of effort that is currently required on both the Strong and Cochrane farms for recording information to their herd management applications- as farmers would not be required to manually record this data in the field before entering it again into the herd management software at a later time.
Herdsman Software ———-
It consists of laptop and computer which work as data accumulator. It contains the software that allows communication with the readers. This is required for the communication with data accumulator, where software is necessary. Herd management software provides mechanisms for farmers to store individual cow data into a database. Data can be entered into this software application manually via an easy to use, standardized interface, or alternatively, data can be automatically entered through the use of other digital devices (such as milk meters, cow weight scales) linked to this database. Such herd management software also provides RFID devices with the information required to make a decision or conduct an action.
Radio Frequency Identification in Livestock————–
Trends in globalization and incorporation of more technological advances in the animal industry have complicated the otherwise simpler issue on animal production and management. As animal food producers are finding ways to increase production to meet increasing market demands, they are also challenged by the difficulty in monitoring individual animals or herds to apply selection for genetic improvement. One of the pervasive shifts for adoption is the application of RFID technology. As the global attraction to RFID -based systems is primarily related to inventory management, the animal industry can benefit largely from the data management capability and flexibility of this system (Ruby, 2007). RFID systems have been used in agriculture for a long time. These areas are animal traceability, farm management etc. RFID applications in animal identification and tracking systems have begun 1970s (Eradus and Jansen, 1999). With improvement and miniaturizations in electronic component in the 1980s, it has become possible producing smaller RFID tags. The first RFID tags used in animals were secured with a neck collar (Rossing, 1999). Later, ear tags and leg bands were seen. Implantable and bolus type tags followed this generation (Castro et al., 2010). Rumen bolus and ear tag technologies have been used commonly today. When compared to the traditional manual methods of data collection, retrieval and usage, RFID base systems have many advantages. These advantages are, storing more data about animals, monitoring animals from birth until slaughter by unique labels, tracking animal disease and easy to determine their origin, recording the transportation of animals, opportunity to follow animals without distressing them, allowing quick an multiple data readings, no need to be within line of sight of the RFID reader, improving the confidence of consumers. (Voulodimos, 2010, Stankovski et al., 2012 and Ting, 2007).
Radio Frequency Identification in Animal Breeding —————–
Livestock productivity and profitability is reduced by animals which do not conceive early each breeding season. Conception at every breeding season depends on heat detection, effective serving and fertility. Inability to detect heat period, unsuccessful serving is affected by the breeding design. Fertile females may elongate their conception rate or calving interval if successive heat period are missed. It is therefore important to have a technology that may detect heat period. In every breeding herd, it is important to maximize the breeding cycle. Females may not conceive or be made non productive if their oestrus cycle and fertile bull are not availability for effective servicing. This can leave a female unproductive for longer time than normal period (Reiners et al., 2009). Methods designed to monitor conception in a breeding herds include a physical examination of female animal, often called the “Palpation” method. The veterinary surgeon checks for swelling of the uterus and ovary. This can be time consuming and costly task for both farmer and veterinary depending on the size of the herd being examined. Other farmers may be incapable to employ this method. Analysis of blood samples for progesterone can also be used to determine whether animals have conceived, this can also be time consuming and expensive. Gayet al. (2008) reported that actions to increase the conception rate in a herd involve exposing the animals on heat to servicing which may provides more conception opportunities for all female animals. A common practice to provide more conception opportunities in a herd, a farmer may either reduce the roaming distance or increase the male to female ratio of the herd for natural mating. These increases heat detection and servicing when the female is in heat, thereby increasing conception rate (Gay et al., 2008).Identifying when a female animal is in heat period enable a farmer to bring the female animal to a male for natural breeding or artificial insemination (AI)(Reiners et al., 2009). Artificial insemination is traditionally used to guarantee conception rate. However AI is still not totally effective with an approximate 50% conception rate in most cases. Also for the majority of farms, this approach is limited or impracticable due to lack of skills and facilities. Methods for determining when an animal is in heat are very important. Observation of the animals for signs of heat: mounting of the animal by other animals, swelling or reddening of the vulva, mucus discharge, restlessness or aggressive behavior, shortened feeding time and use of markers commonly employed traditionally for heat detection are faced with numerous challenges. The effectiveness of these methods dependent on many factors. The mount detecting devices which are pressure sensitive devices glued to the back or rear of the female animal, when the animal is mounted by another, the device changes colour or provides some other indication of the mounting which can then be observed by the farmer. This requires the use of a dummy bull(s) depending on herd size and may increase management cost. All of these methods depend on personnel efficiency as such other heat period may be missed. In farms where artificial insemination is used, heat detection is an important tool for breeding. In attempting to reduce the cost by avoiding dummy bulls to use few fertile males in the herd, tracking of the parentage of the offspring can be difficult if not impossible. The use of RFID system which enables a more reliable monitoring of the oestrus cycles and breeding activities of livestock herd will be a welcome development (Reiners et al., 2009). Efficient monitoring of the breeding activities of the herd as may be provided by RFID enable the farmer to identify unproductive breeders to cull from the herd, or to take action that will rectify problems that affect the conception rate in the herd. If the herd management system had stored data, or has access to historical data of the herd and also has formation on the breeding cycle data, the herd management system can with the support of the current pedigree information be informed decisively on the way forward. All methods employed for heat detection and mating had no automotive recording of data and as such vital information are often missed. Radio frequency identification (RFID) can be employed as a system for livestock breeding and management in a herd where each female animal carries radio frequency identification (RFID) tag. This system is gaining concern globally. RFID can detects when the male animal mounts a female, based on the body position of the male animal, read identification data from the RFID tag carried by the mounted female animal generates breeding activity data including the identification data of the mounted female animal, the timing data for each mount for output to the herd management system. The herd management system is adapted to process breeding activity data output from the one or more breeding activity monitors to generate herd management data (Reiners et al., 2009). The processing of the breeding activity data provides herd management data comprising conception data for each female, indicating the conception rate (Gay et al., 2008). The conception data for each female is based on analysis of the mounting activity for the female animal and oestrus cycle data for the female animal. These include date of birth for each pregnant female animal, effective service or successful rate data for each male animal, fertility and ease of impregnation data for each female animal and offspring family data (Gay et al., 2008). Breeding activities monitors are individually provided with a wireless communication interface whereby the breeding activity data is transmitted to the herd management system for processing. A wireless base station(s) located in the area where the herd graze to ensure that breeding activity monitor is within transmission range of the base station. Breeding activity data will be transmitted wirelessly to the base station for subsequent transmission to the herd management system. The method will allow each base station stores breeding activity data for subsequent downloading for use by farmer. A base station transmits the breeding activity data to the herd management system via a communication network. The breeding activity monitor adapted to be carried by an animal include: a radio frequency identification (RFID) tag reader for reading identification data from an RFID tag secured to another animal in the herd; a mount detector to determine when the animal mount another animal base on the body position of the animal; a processor for processing the data from the RFID tag reader, processing data system from the mount detector to generate breeding activity data to includes the identification data of the mounted animals and timing data for each breeding activity (Gay et al., 2008). Mount detector determines whether the animal carrying the monitor is mounting another animal based on the body angle and motion of the animal. The determination of mounts is influenced by the proximity of the RFID tag reader to the RFID tag on the mounted animal.
Low Radio Frequency identification (LFRID) in Animal Management ————-
According to Suzanne (2015), Tagging livestock with RFID can be an important tool in a farmer’s plan to identify each animal along with its pedigree and medical information. An LF reader or wand scans the animal during veterinary visits or inventory counts, and with the help of software, uploads significant information on each animal to a database. These new livestock tracking RFID systems use UHF RFID and GPS to track the animal’s movement in order to identify feeding and travel habits, and even monitor heart rate. Livestock animals are not the only animals currently tracked using RFID. Veterinarians are now pushing for all household animals to be tracked using RFID in order to create a system to identify lost and found pets. If all household animals are tagged with LF RFID chips, when they are found, vets can scan their tag to see information such as identification and the owner’s contact information. RFID chips that identify all pets on a nation-wide database can help reunite lost pets with their owners. Tagging animals using RFID is to manage exotic and endangered animals on preserves or other wildlife habitats. LF RFID, UHF RFID, and GPS systems are all used in animal management. The specific system selected is usually dependent on the information needed and safety of the animals.
Use of RFID System for Automatic information on Milk Records———-
Milk is the primary product for the farmer and it is important to know how much milk each cow is producing and likewise, to have a source of feedback to establish what factors enable your cows to produce the maximum amount of milk. Milk meters provide this valuable ability, measuring the amount of milk each cow provides at every milking session. In this method milking of cows is carried by machine milking which is connected to sampler in which the milk drawn from cow is filled by machine, the sampler is connected to milk analyzer which finally passes all the information to computer which includes electrical conductivity, temperature, chemical composition, colour, SCC (somatic cell count) and particle size. When a cow enters the walk way entrance of the milking parlor, the computer screen at the parlor displays such information as unique cow’s number, last milk yield, somatic cell count, and disease with medicinal treatment information for milking workers to pay attention (James, 2004). It is believed that the implementation of these devices could become an integral component of dairy farming in the future. As previously alluded to, a great benefit that milk meters provide is the ability for farmers to achieve a complete cycle of information. Currently, farmers are able to control and measure many aspects of a cow’s environment and lifestyle. However, without milk meters, farmers are unable to accurately gauge how varying certain elements in a cow’s environment may affect their milk production. Besides it we can use this device for other uses like—–
1.Use of RFID System for Monitoring Feeding Behavior in Beef Cattle
2.Use of RFID System for Automatic Weighing of Farm Animals
3.MONITORING BEHAVIOR OF POULTRY BASED ON RFID NETWORK
4.Use of RFID System for Health and Reproduction monitoring
5.Use of RFID System for Temperature monitoring
Radio Frequency Identification (RFID in Indian context————
The Information Network for Animal Productivity and Health (INAPH) programme of the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) is the ambitious programme of the government to implant microchip for cattle identification to curb the stray animal menace and also check insurance frauds. Now Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tag will act as the unique identification of the cattle. The tag is attached to the ear of an animal and the information about the animal is scanned and stored in a mobile device. Each tag is made of thermoplastic polyurethane elastomeric that is intended to be lightweight, unobtrusive, tamper-proof, and long-lasting. The tag also has a 12-digit identification number similar to the Aadhaar ID.
Technicians affix the tag with a special tool, give the cattle’s owner a card recording the UID, owner name, breeding details and deworming and vaccination status. All the information is collected in an online database.
The tag can be used not just to identify animal and curb theft cases but also procure data on live weight gain of each animal.This can be used to send alerts through SMS to owners and veterinary doctors as per their need and also help prevent loan frauds as with the ID the authorities will know whether the cattle was mortgaged before or not.
The stray animal nuisance has become a major problem in India as owners abandon their cattle after they stop yielding milk. Tracing the owners was a difficult task. Further, there is no mechanism to find out that whether the stray cattle had been abandoned by the local farmers or released in borders from other states. The RFID tag would solve the identification problem.
The RFID-tag is much cheaper and the cost is worked out at Rs 8 per tag.
Challenges to the use of radio frequency identification of animals————-
A system as vast as radio frequency identification (RFID) of farm animals could be extremely expensive. There is a school of thought that the costs of applying RFID for animal identification will drive small farmers out of business, due to the cost associated with registering each animal. Small farmers and families that sell off parts of their herds or flocks every year would have to register and pay a registration fee for every head of livestock or poultry. While this is true, corporate livestock breeders and organization may adopt this technology to accumulate quality records, select and breed appropriate foundation stocks for the small holder’s farmers. This technology is easily adopted by corporate farms with large herd or flocks that move through the production chain as a group, as they will have to pay fee equivalent of owning one animal (Bowling et al., 2008). Small farmers and families may not adopt in totality the RFID technology, but focus on animal identification to minimize theft as a tracing device. Tracking of livestock, and poultry, in its broadest context could or will eventually be used (1) to determine origin and ownership, and to deter theft and misrepresentation of animals and meat; (2) for surveillance, control and eradication of exotic animal diseases; (3) for bio-security protection of the national livestock population; (4) for compliance with the requirements of international customers; (5) for compliance with country-of-origin labeling requirements; (6) for improvement of supply-side management, distribution/delivery systems and inventory controls; (7) to facilitate value-based marketing; (8) to facilitate value-added marketing; (9) to isolate the source and extent of quality-control and food-safety problems; and (10) to minimize product recalls and make crisis management protocols more effective.
FRID system can be applied to all aspects of animal production for efficient record keeping. The advantages of the use of RFID system of data generation, provision of selection tools and other management tools will eliminate the challenges of inadequacy of production records. These will facilitate genetic development of the indigenous livestock animals in developing countries. Government and non-governmental organizations can fund the cost of applying RFID system targeting the most valuable local breeds. Rural livestock herds under individual farmer should be organize to form large cooperative breeding herds upon which the RFID system can be applied for data generation. Corporate livestock organizations may also adopt RFID system to enhance quality recording and monitoring of data in developing countries. These can be used for selection and breeding to produce improved foundation stock for smallholder farmers
