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In Australia, we experienced many early problems relating to a lack of a common standard for RFID microchips in small animals. However, in spite of this problem, and in cooperation with the manufacturers, we managed to establish a very wide network of scanners which were capable of reading all the chips distributed by the three corporations, Destron-Fearing, AVID and Trovan.

On the international market, similar incompatibility problems let to the development of a standard type of chip and reader technology by the International Standards Organisation (ISO).

Following development of the International Standard, the Australian Standards Association was asked to develop the ISO standard to make it suitable for Australia and New Zealand. A consultative technical committee (IT 28), composed of manufacturer and user groups was established for this purpose.

The AVA has been one of the consumer groups represented on the technical committee (IT 28). The AVA representatives pointed out to the committee the need to separate the requirements of companion animal from farm and other animals, but this advice was initially ignored. It was only after many months of negotiation, that the Standards committee reluctantly conceded that companion animals, with the large numbers of animals already implanted with non-ISO compatible chips, needed to be dealt with in a separate manner to farm animals.

The major problem in adopting the International Standards 11784 and 11785 was that they failed to address the need to provide for scanners capable of reading the existing implanted non-ISO chips for the lifetime of the animal in addition to the newly implanted ISO compatible chips. The ISO standard only allowed for ISO scanners. The AVA, in conjunction with RSPCA (Australia) have tried to develop an amendment to make a true "universal scanner", capable of scanning all the chips in Australia, part of the Australian Standard. At the last meeting of IT 28, it was resolved to include this amendment.

The development of a commercial reader or scanner capable of reading all types of chip has been delayed by court actions between manufacturers over patents rights. In spite of this there are now several readers manufactured that will read all the common types of chip, including the ISO compatible chips. At present only one of these, the Destron Pocket Reader EX is commercially available in Australia.

At the May 1998 AVA Conference, Allflex introduced its ISO compatible chip and reader onto the market. Unfortunately, the Allflex reader is only capable of reading the ISO compatible standard chips, so a veterinarian purchasing this manufacturer's reader would have to also purchase or possess another reader capable of reading the other three types of chip to be able to effectively scan animals in Australia.

Two other companies selling chips on the Australian market, Destron-Fearing (AEIDS / Lifechip) and AVID (VMN), both manufacture and sell ISO compatible chips in other countries. However, both companies have cooperated with the AVA in delaying release of these chips onto the Australian market because they realize the full implications of implanting this type of chip before the reader network is established.

The Committee has agreed that there will be a moratorium of nine months following acceptance of the Australian Standard, to allow all stocks of non-ISO compliant chips to be distributed and to allow the users to set up a network of readers capable of detecting and reading ISO chips as well as non-ISO chips. After the nine month period only ISO-compliant chips should be imported.

The primary purpose of any sort of registration tag, whether it be a collar tag or implanted microchip is the accurate identification of animals and to enable them to be re-homed when they are lost. The obvious benefits of a microchip is its permanence and the ability to rapidly identify the ownership through a computerised central registry available at all hours, seven days a week and 365 days a year.

Registry protocols
This brings us to the next critical step in the negotiations; the establishment of suitable protocols for the operation of Australia-wide integrated microchip registries. The AVA policy initially endorsed only one registry, the Australian Animal Registry (AAR), based at the NSW Royal Agricultural Society. However, it soon became quite obvious that there were several commercial registries operating in Australia and that the AVA had no way to enforce the use of one central registry. In fact to do so would be against Australian anti-competition legilation. Two of the main registries, AAR and Companion Animal Records (CAR) worked cooperatively together, but some of the other registries were not so cooperative and the AVA saw the need to develop protocols for the operation of registries which would allow them to communicate while preserving the integrity of the data, commercial and legal privacy obligations.

The Victorian Division of the AVA, in conjunction with the RSPCA and Cat Protection society Victoria, developed a suitable set of operating protocols for microchip registries, vesting ownership of the data in an independent community based body. The AVA sought to have a modification of these operating protocols incorporated into the Australian Standard. It would appear that Standards Australia is extremely reluctant to incorporate any operating protocols for registries into its draft standard a separate but cross-referenced Standard for microchip registries. The AVA has pointed out that all registries need to integrate in some way to allow them to be effective across the whole country.

NSW Register of Companion Animals
The New South Wales Government has recently introduced a Companion animals Act, which makes microchipping an integral and mandatory part of the registration process for both dogs and cats. This Act has dictated that a registry will be set up in NSW for the purpose of holding data on behalf of the NSW Govt.

The regulations proposed for the Register of Companion Animals in NSW conform very broadly to the AVA protocols. Ownership of the data on this registry rests with the NSW Director General's dept. and this department has the power to limit access to the data to authorised personnel. Hopefully all registered veterinarians will be included as "authorised personnel". There is no obligation for the NSW registry to communicate with other microchip registries in Australia, although the AVA will continue to work towards such integration. All local government bodies and veterinarians need to be aware that microchip identification is an Australia wide scheme.Although legislation in any one State may influence details of the overall scheme, the national scheme must be fully integratedfor the recovery system to work effectively.

The NSW Dept. of Local Government has recently invited companies to register tenders to operate the registry of registered dogs and cats on behalf of the Government of NSW. All normal details of registration, including details of microchip identification will be included on this registry on behalf of all the 177 Councils in NSW. The NSW Act requires owners of dogs and cats to have their animals microchipped at the point of sale and later to include these details as part of the registration process at 6 months of age. From this information, the NSW Govt. will be able to identify all animals which are microchipped, but NOT registered with the local council.

Microchip in NSW to be ISO - compliant
The NSW Govt. will have the power to specify that the microchip used will have to comply with the Australian Standard. This will effectively mean that all companion animals in NSW will have to be implanted with a chip that conforms to the Australian ISO Standard. Animals already implanted with another type of chip will be able to use this chip identification for the purposes of registration and will NOT require re-implantation, but the details of this identification will have to be entered on the NSW Register of dogs and cats. The cost of this is unknown.

Implanters in NSW to be Govt. "approved"
The NSW Govt. will also require the NSW register to keep a list of "approved / accredited" implanters and records of bulk distribution of microchips from suppliers to implanters. It is highly probable that veterinarians will be included in the "approved implanters" but approval will not be limited to vets and some councils and welfare groups may choose to use "approved" lay implanters for registration purposes.

The AVA strongly believes that veterinarians are the most appropriate persons to implant companion animals and will be actively promoting this point of view in the community. AVA Accredited microchip centres will be part of this promotion.

AVA Accredited Microchip centres

One of the objectives of the AVA is to promote the veterinary profession to the community. Veterinarians, as the primary providers for the health and welfare of animals should be the prime implanters of microchip in companion animals. As part of this objective, AVA Accredited Microchip centres will be promoted to State and local government and the community as the preferred location for animal owners to have their companion animals implanted with an identification microchip. AVA Accredited Microchip centres will have to agree to comply with the following protocols in order to become accredited.

Protocols for AVA Accredited microchip centres AVA member practices seeking AVA Accreditation must agree to abide by the following protocols.
They must:

* Be an AVA member
* Agree to adhere to AVA's microchip policy
* Keep an acceptable inventory of microchips to meet normal demands
* Possess a scanner(s) capable of identifying all the commonly used chip technologies (This includes the ISO Standard)
* Scan the animal prior to implantation to ensure that it is not carrying a chip.
* Scan the chip before and after implantation to ensure it is functioning effectively.
* Forward registration details of the owner and animal to the registry within a maximum of five days, preferably the next working day.
* Register animals on an AVA endorsed microchip registry.
* Must only offer lifetime registration of microchip details. (Not to be confused with Council registration).
* Keep statistics of all animals microchipped and registered for audit purposes to assess the effectiveness of the scheme.
* Follow sterile procedure - single chip and sterile single use needle - in accordance with AVA microchip
policy.
* Report all adverse reactions to the AVA
* AVA Accredited microchip centres can use the AVA logo and advertise as an AVA Accredited Microchip Centre.

Application forms are now available on the AVA Web page. Details are also included in the Feb 1998 AVJ.
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Application form:- Please fill out, detach and return to; AVA, Microchip
Accreditation, c/- PO Box 371, Artarmon, NSW 1570

Name of practice ………………………………………………………………………………..
Directors / partners …………………………………………………………………………….
Address …………………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………………………..
Phone …………………………………… Fax …………………………………………..
E-mail …………………………………………………………………………………
Declaration: We the undersigned have read and agree to abide by the protocols for an AVA Accredited Microchip Centre. We possess a scanner/scanners (Transceiver) capable of scanning microchips (transponders)manufactured by AVID, Destron, Trovan and all ISO - compatible microchips, commonly used in Australia.

We wish to apply for accreditation as an AVA microchip centre. Furthermore, we understand and agree that accreditation of our practice will be removed if we fail to continue to abide by the above protocols.

Signed ………………………………………………………………………………..
on behalf of (practice name) ………………………………………………………………
Date…………………………………………………………..
Witnessed………………………………………………………………………………
Date…………………………………………………………………………………….