| by Denise Steffanus
BIG BROTHER is watching, but this time that might be a good thing. The United States Department of Agriculture is gearing up a nationwide livestock identification program that will enable it to track animals that carry disease or are exposed to it. The USDA's National Animal Identification System uses a number-bearing microchip implanted in an animal to link it to a database containing information on that animal and on other microchipped animals.
The discovery of a case of mad cow disease in the Northwest was the impetus for development of the system, which currently is voluntary but which will become mandatory by January 2009. Until then, the USDA will use feedback from participants and trial and error to develop a system that works smoothly and efficiently to identify the location and travels of suspected disease carriers within 48 hours.
Microchipping horses
During England's outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in 2001, racetracks there were closed because of the fear that horses shipping in to race might carry the disease on their feet and hair and disseminate it to others that would carry it back home--even though horses are not susceptible to foot-and-mouth disease. The USDA is incorporating horses into their system for similar reasons and to curb the spread of diseases that are common to horses, humans, and other species, such as anthrax, rabies, and encephalomyelitis.
Several equine breed organizations already implement physical identification of horses. Methods include tattoos, freeze brands, and hot brands. For horses already bearing a mark, microchipping will be an added means of identification, not a replacement.
Microchips have been used in companion animals for years to aid in locating missing pets. For horses, a microchip the size of a grain of rice is inserted into the nuchal ligament under the mane using a needle-like device. But the chip is not that easy to remove, so tampering with or switching microchips--a concern often expressed by horse owners--would require advanced surgical skills to make the correct incision and then hide evidence of the procedure using cosmetic surgery.
"The [nuchal ligament] is a very fibrous tissue and the microchip itself has a coating on it that incorporates into the tissue, so the tissue actually grows in and around it to hold it into place," said Mike Cavey, D.V.M., who is part owner of Kentucky-based Equine Microtech, a distributor for microchip manufacturer Digital Angel.
"So you would have to make an incision in the horse's neck, go in and take out a pretty large portion of tissue, and then try to get the chip out of that tissue. It's not a matter of poking a little hole. Then the trick is to get that chip out of the tissue intact and put it in the next horse. It would be more difficult than people would think."
Basic microchips have a 15-digit capacity. A plan for an international horse identification system advocates using the first three digits as a country code, the next three digits as a breed code, and the remaining nine digits for the horse's registration number. A handheld device passed over the horse's crest is used to read and display the horse's identification number.
Like a retail checkout reads the bar code on an item and then charges the pre-entered price, updates inventory records, prints out rebate offers, and lists the item on a sales receipt, microchips offer countless possibilities for horse record keeping.
On the track
Australia began microchipping Thoroughbreds as a secondary form of identification starting with the 2003 foal crop. Last year, those two-year-olds brought microchip technology to the racetrack for the first time in the Maribyrnong Trial Stakes at Flemington, Victoria, on October 1.
Racing officials in Australia have scanners linked to personal digital assistants (PDAs). With a wave of the scanner over the microchip, they can identify the horse and retrieve and update information on the PDA that they formerly maintained with paper and pen.
In Melbourne, a glove scanner called a Hand-eSCAN replaces the cumbersome veterinary scanner. An official wearing one of these electronic gloves simply strokes the horse's neck over the microchip to get a reading. Even the most fractious horse readily accepts the friendly process. The glove uses Bluetooth technology to wirelessly link to a computer that contains pertinent documentation, such as the horse's name, age, sex, color, markings, and owner.
Victoria Racing's Chief Steward Des Gleeson said he hopes eventually to be able to integrate racing and workout records into the microchip database and erect arches at all Victoria racetracks that would scan horses as they walk through en route to a day's workout and automatically update the information on that animal in the database.
Veterinarians at the track are expected to use the system in the future to document medications administered to racehorses and incorporate those medication records into the database.
In the U.S., Dan Fick, executive vice president and executive director of the Jockey Club, said that although the registry is not requiring horses to be microchipped, it has adapted its database to accept microchip numbers, and it will make those numbers available online for help in identifying horses.
"If they have a scanner and get the number, they can go online and find out who the horse is," Fick said.
As in Australia, racing officials will use microchip identification as an additional way to identify a horse, so it will not replace tattooing or other methods currently in use, Fick said.
"You can't just look at the tattoo; you have to make sure you have a bay mare standing in front of you, or four white socks, or whatever your markings are," Fick said. "Microchipping becomes another tool, but it would never become the all-inclusive tool. So I don't envision tattoos going away anytime soon."
Fick, who is co-chairman of the equine species working group that is working with the American Horse Council and the USDA in the microchip project, said, "At this particular time, there are no plans for a standardized, central database for equines."
According to Fick, cattlemen are reluctant to allow the federal government access to records on livestock location and movement unless there is a disease outbreak, so they are advocating an industry-maintained database, and they are urging other species to do the same.
"Regarding an equine database, personally I am of the opinion that is the best-case scenario, but you have a lot of people to convince before that is going to happen," Fick said.
New tool for veterinarians
Veterinarians have been buried in paperwork since the profession began. Accurate and diligent record keeping is crucial for the health and welfare of each of their equine patients.
Many modern veterinarians have switched from paper and pen to PDAs and laptop computers to maintain patient and client records. Microchipping promises to make that task even easier by allowing veterinarians to pull up the horse's records by simply scanning the microchip. Services performed on the horse for that visit, medication administered, and treatment notes can be added to that horse's medical records stored in the veterinarian's database. Use of scanners also will simplify billing while minimizing errors.
But that is not where this technology stops. Companies around the world are working on new types of microchips that will incorporate the ability to monitor vital signs. Another industry goal is to find a way to enhance microchips with global positioning system (GPS) transmitters that will show the location of a particular microchipped horse.
Digital Angel soon plans to release a microchip that is able to detect a horse's temperature.
"When the biothermal chip is released, that will add a new wrinkle because it is really nice to be able to wave a wand past the horse's neck and take about two seconds to get a temperature reading," Cavey said. "To me, that's the biggest boost."
At the infectious disease forum during the recent convention of the American Association of Equine Practitioners, veterinarians working with last year's strangles outbreaks at various racetracks expressed regret that microchipping had not been in place.
"We had to be really careful about sticking our hands in the horse's mouth to check the tattoo," said Robert Holland, D.V.M., Ph.D., about the strict protocols that had to be observed for veterinarians not to spread disease-laden saliva from horse to horse.
"When you start thinking about it, this is one of those Star Wars things," Cavey said. "If a microchip can take a temperature, can it also read a pulse or can it test glucose level in the body? Can it do other things? I think at some point in time, it will and it will give us more diagnostic procedures."
The Australian company bioWatch that supplies microchips to the Australian racing industry is developing a microchip system called a.Ware that is able to remotely monitor a horse's heart rate, temperature, and precise location and then alert the owner of any irregularities via e-mail, pager, or cellular telephone.
"Heart rate and temperature are only the beginning," said Tim Bos, bioWatch's technical director. "BioWatch is in the process of licensing technology that will allow us to monitor for pH levels, bi-carb levels, or even drug use and viral infections."
In a Buck Rogers society, with all horses at a racetrack (or farm) implanted with microchips capable of transmitting vital signs, outbreaks of disease could be detected early by satellite imaging that pinpoints clusters of horses with fevers that have not yet developed other clinical signs.
Farm management
Record keeping is a huge task on any farm, no matter its size. Individual records must be maintained on every horse covering virtually everything about it. Records typically include:
"Horse identification;
"Owner information;
"Insurance coverage;
"Feeding program;
"Shoeing;
"Reproduction;
"Veterinary;
"Training; and
"Billing.
With all horses on a farm bearing a microchip identification, farm personnel would be able to scan the horse to retrieve records on, for example, how much and what type of feed and supplements it should get or how far and how fast a two-year-old should exercise on the training track that day.
Likewise, a scan of the horse's microchip for the farrier could pull up the long-range plan for corrective trimming or what type of shoe is preferred on a particular horse.
Billing records for veterinary work are often complicated and confusing to maintain by hand. For veterinarians working exclusively for one farm, billing would be a snap using a scanner and PDA to retrieve and add to the horse's medical billing records. The potential also exists for outside veterinarians to upload their treatment records for a particular farm's horses onto the farm computer.
An obvious advantage of microchip identification would be the ability to identify and reunite lost or stolen horses with their proper owners. Adding and maintaining current information for a "do not slaughter" contact person to a horse's database file is another idea being tossed around.
In the future, a farm's night watchman would be able to pinpoint the exact location of every horse on the farm using GPS and check its vital signs from a central location before making his usual rounds for a closer look.
The possibilities for microchipping identification will increase as technology escalates, but one horsewoman voiced an almost universal yet unspoken concern, "Today it's horses; will it be people tomorrow?" |
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