New Guidelines and procedures for testing and certification of animal identification devices have been approved by General Assembly of ICAR and are coming into effect in 2015. There are new services Service-ICAR will offer to manufacturers and users of ID devices in addition to the role ICAR has as Registration Authority of ISO. The full text of the new Section 10 Guideline will be available on the ICAR website from 10th December
1. Key points related to the RFID devices
The key points related to the RFID devices are the following:
- ICAR registered RFID devices: The procedure of publishing registered devices at the ICAR web page remains the same.
- Terminology: The term “ICAR approved” will be replaced by “ICAR registered” to comply with the terminology of the Registration Authority agreement between ISO and ICAR. ICAR certification will be an additional service.
- ICAR certification: Device certification will be valid for five years. At the end of five years the manufacturer is invited to recertify the product.
- Recertification process: The voluntary RFID recertification will be based on the limited test procedure of ISO 24631-1 and ISO 24631-3 (performance test) and ICAR (Section 10).
- New webpage: Every device that has passed the conformance test or recertification process will be published on the “ICAR certified” devices webpage. The list of RFID devices will include:
- Registration date
- ICAR certification date
- Performance evaluation date (if applicable)
- Composition and environmental test date (if applicable).
2. The key points related to the ICAR material and environmental tests on external RFID devices and conventional plastic ear tags are the following
- New test protocol (external RFID): For permanent external RFID devices ICAR offers a completely new test protocol on device composition and environmental performance (ref new Guideline Section 10.8).
- Revised protocol (plastic ear tags): The composition and environmental performance test protocol for permanent conventional plastic ear tags has been updated (ref. Guideline Section 10.7)
- Recertification process: The voluntary recertification will be based initially on the full test procedure but the ICAR Animal ID subcommittee is working out reduced options of retest protocols to which the candidate devices will be subjected based on an initial evaluation.
3. Smooth transition
- Transition period: In the year 2015 only, ICAR offers an extra sixth (6th) year of certification for the RFID devices that on the 1st January 2015 are in the fifth year from the previous test. This arrangement is offered to facilitate a smooth transition to the new system.
4. Test costs
Costs of initial tests unchanged
- RA RFID registration fee: Will be applied only for the initial registration.
- ICAR material test fees: As before the test price will be composed of the laboratory fee plus the established Service-ICAR overhead.
Costs of retests
- RFID recertification: Price of RFID limited test plus the Service-ICAR overhead.
- Material retests: The ICAR Subcommittee for animal ID is working out new options for retest protocols which after the initial evaluation of the device could result a recertification based on; a) a limited test or, c) a full test if the device does not match the originally certified device
In Summary
The ICAR Sub-Committee for Animal Identification, composed of animal ID specialists from all parts of the word and in consultation with the best scientists in this area, has worked intensively for the past couple of years to produce the new animal ID guideline. ICAR believes that this will be positively welcomed by both manufacturers and authorities responsible for the criteria of choice and procurement of ID devices. The result is an important step in the development of a comprehensive ICAR quality management system of ID devices