ISO Standards
The International Standard Organization (ISO) standards 11784 and 11785 define the signals and data formats for low frequency RFID. This has allowed development of PIT tags and readers from multiple manufacturers that are compatible with each other.
ISO Compatible and ICAR Certified Tags
All of the tags that Oregon RFID offers are compatible with these ISO standards and operate on 134.2 kHz, the international standard frequency for animal tracking. We also have tags that are certified by the International Committee for Animal Recording (ICAR) who coordinate a worldwide numbering system. They assign tag number sequences to manufacturers so that ownership can be traced. Tag manufacturers are required by ICAR to be able to trace tags back to the original purchaser as specified in their code of conduct.
Oregon RFID maintains a record of ownership for all ICAR registered animal tags that we ship. If we receive an inquiry about a tag that is in our database we will not provide the information to the requester but will instead notify the owner. We do not track tag numbers of our compatible tags.
How to Tell the Difference
A tag that is ICAR certified sends a "1" in the animal flag field as defined by ISO 11784. If the flag is "0" then the tag can be detected by the same readers but the numbering is not allocated by ICAR. Our long range HDX readers display a prefix of "A" for ICAR certified (animal flag is "1") and "R" for ISO compatible tags (animal flag is "0"). The Portable Reader will indicate if a tag is ICAR certified with an "A" in the display.
