Leo Ortenblad, Digital Angel’s General Manager for the RFID Division’s International Activities commented, “We are delighted that the Portuguese Ministry of Agriculture has selected Digital Angel’s RFID chip for the launch of this important program, one of many in the planning stages throughout Europe. We were selected after a very competitive bid process partly on the basis of our 15 years of proven results in the European market, both in terms of performance and reliability. Digital Angel is the original innovator, intellectual-property owner and the world’s largest marketer of implantable microchip technology for the companion pet marketplace and we consider our established technological platform to be unsurpassed by any other manufacturer.”

The Portuguese dog identification program is being conducted in conjunction with the country’s annual rabies vaccination drive. The Portuguese ministry was prompted to undertake the project because other countries in Europe had experienced excellent results with their pet identification campaigns and the injectable electronic identification of pets is rapidly growing in popularity throughout the world.

The deadline for all of Portugal’s approximately 2 million dogs to be identified and registered in a national database is 2007.

Digital Angel’s partner in the Portuguese initiative, and all its European pet identification programs, is Atlanta-based Merial, one of the world’s leading animal healthcare companies.

The issue of pet identification is prominent throughout Europe, thanks also to the recently enacted European Union’s Pet Passport Initiative. This requires all pets being transported between, and into, member countries to have an electronic ID system or tattoo number as well as a record of vaccinations and other clinical data by October 1.