To the vast majority of animal owners the installation of a microchip under your pets skin can represent a milestone moment of the early stage of your ever-lasting companionship. The procedure is typically performed by a veterinarian a few months past their birth at the request of a breeder or an official shelter, when a pet has been chosen by their future holder.
Directed to every reader who has never lived the experience first hand, the microchip’s cardinal function is serving as an identification tag. If the pet will get lost (hopefully not), showing the chip to a veterinarian enables reunification with their owner.
The history of the microchip
The microchip was first patented in California in 1985, by a company named AVID, however the first microchip was physically implanted in 1989. The practise became extremely common, and even mandatory in certain states after the 1990s (as the UK, Belgium and Ireland).
The scientific prospects of the evolution of the device are multiple as research progresses, such as measurements of health parameters and environmental interaction metrics. Interestingly, tracking the movement of wild animals in order to counteract their extinction, or for studies on migratory behaviours is also included in the near future of RFID technology.
How does it work?
Microchips use RFID (Radio frequency identification) technology, which employs radio waves as a medium to transmit information. An RFID tag, commonly known as a microchip, utilises electromagnetic forces as power, in order to communicate its data to another deciphering device, which we will discover later in the article…
RFID tags are considered “passive holders” of specific data ( an identification number in the case of pet microchips), since empty of a battery or internal power source.
The capsule that contains the microchip is made of biocompatible glass which will avoid an allergic or toxic reaction in the animal. Most modern capsules also contain polypropylene polymer, a synthetic resin that prompts the forming of connective tissue around the capsule preventing the chip from moving in the body.
These micro-containers or capsules, are composed by a silicon microchip (encloses the numbers), a tuning capacitor (receives radio waves and transmits them to the microchip), and a copper antenna coil (absorbs the data of the microchip).
Therefore, the utensil requires a technology that will act as an information scanner, or an “RFID Interrogator” (in tech jargon). The scanner “interrogates” the capsule by replenishing the tuning capacitor with its radio frequency. Once it has been energised the antenna coil inside the capsule captures the electromagnetic signal from the scanner, which temporarily powers the microchip to permit its data to transfer back to the scanner, where the identification number contained in the microchip appears on an LCD (liquid crystal display screen).
Is pain the cost for a greater good?
The title is intentionally provocative, since certain people are still afraid nowadays of implanting their pet with a microchip, because of the assumed pain the animal will endure. In reality, the procedure is safe, harmless and as painful as a routine shot (minimum suffering threshold) if executed by a professional veterinary, which must also verify that the animal has no previous chip, signifying it already belongs to somebody else!
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