(RFIDWorld.ca) As part of a national swine tracing system, the Canadian Pork council has begun to hand out traceability ear tags. The primary objective of distributing traceability ear tags is to be able to quickly trace back swine and the affected areas in the event of a crisis such as a food safety issue or disease outbreak. The swine traceability system is branded as PigTrace Canada. The initial distribution will be made to the breeding herds of Canada. Most breeding animals in Canada already have tags for management purposes in barns. Jeff Clark, program manager says that they are trying to create tags not only for the purpose of detecting swine or other food safety issues but also plan to maintain the functionality of the already existent barn management tags. Clark says that they want to try and create a business tool that can help producers and farmers do their jobs more efficiently to improve their businesses.
The new tags will contain a unique traceability number in addition to a space provided for a barn or room management number with an RFID electronic identifier button. These new tags can already be ordered by producers in Manitoba and Saskatchewan. Other provinces may have to wait a while until take can get their hands on them.
