November 16, 2006

China adopts radio frequency technology in hog industry

Yunnan's hog breeding and Radio Frequency management system for the hog industry based on the EAN. UCC standard, was approved Tuesday (Nov 14) by the relevant authorities.

The hog industry is a major sector in China's agriculture.

Due to the rapid development in animal nutrition and feed industry facilitating cross-breeding of hogs, China's pork meat output has increased significantly.

According to statistics, live hog totalled 652 million head with carcass weights reaching 10 million tonnes in 2005.

However, over usage of antibiotics, chemical synthesis medicine and hormone as well as other illegal additives have led to the poor quality of meat, which have also posed health and environmental risks.

WTO standards require not only the physical and chemical standards to be met for livestock export, but also a comprehensive record of the hog rearing process.

To date, China's hog enterprises have not built up any tracking and tracing systems. Some farms still mark the live hog by ear-clipping while others record dates by hand or in pre-printed code.

This low efficiency method has led to the shortage of rearing data. The absence of tracking and tracing data for live hogs, poses dangers for export and human health.

This project is the first of its kind in China to combine the radio frequency technology and the global system EAN.UCC, according to experts.

The system is expected to make possible the scientific management of birth, breeding, vaccination and feeding processes of the animals.