Manual animal identification methods can be easily misapplied and are often misread, with sometimes serious consequences. Ear-notches/punches can grow back making accurate identification increasingly difficult or impossible. All traditional, manual lab animal ID methods are painful to the rodent and potentially a source of infection. Tattoos have been associated with an immune response (macrophage infiltration) which is undesirable. RapID Tags are the most humane, accurate, multi-color, automated, lab animal ID tags available.
RapID Tags are manufactured from biologically inert, medical-grade polymers which eliminate tissue reactions. Histological and macroscopic examinations of ears have shown no evidence of tissue inflammation, only tissue healing around the small hole for the single post used in the RapID Tag design.
While any ear-tag has the potential to be torn out, unlike standard metal ear-tags, RapID Tags are much less irritating and thus less likely to cause excessive grooming. They are light weight enough that the ear remains mostly erect. They also have no loop structure to easily get caught in an animal’s phalanges.
RapID tags are made of an extremely hard polymer plastic securing a specially-hardened metal barcode plate. These features make it very unlikely that RapID Tags can become destroyed by an aggressive cage-mate
No. RapID Tag’s 2-D matrix barcode is easily and quickly scanned (normally about 1 second) by the Code CR1500 model light scanner or other popular ordinary-light scanners. These scanners will not cause damage to the eye under normal usage.
Yes. Using the RapID Tag Removal Tool makes it an easy and quick process to remove a RapID Tag previously applied to a rodent’s ear. The ear tag removal process is painless to the rodent and won’t damage the ear, while maintaining the integrity of the barcode. However, once removed, the tags are not reusable. Please consult the product guide prior to removal.
Barcodes are visible codes of lines or squares like those seen on products purchased at the supermarket. Barcodes can be scanned by ordinary light scanners. Unlike most product barcodes made of lines, RapID Tags have a 2-D matrix barcode which is square in shape and very tiny in size (less than 5mm X 5mm). Each barcode represents one of millions of unique animal identification numbers.
RFID is a passive electromagnetic microchip chip encased in glass, then surgically inserted into the rodent. When the animal (and chip) are exposed to electromagnetic radiation, the chip is energized and transmits an electromagnetic signal that is interpreted by the RFID receiver and converted into an animal identification. Microchips have been associated with spontaneous tumor developments.
Animal identification errors associated with manual ID methods may cause expensive errors in studies. These errors include administering the wrong treatments to animals or collecting wrong measurements, which cost time, money and impact data integrity. Every time an animal identification error occurs, the integrity of the study is compromised, sometimes completely. When considered cumulatively, the cost of ID errors far exceeds the nominal cost of the RapID Tags used for each study.
Using RapID Tags, the identification is automated so scanning the tag hands-free is significantly faster than manual methods. And because no interpretation is required, when used in conjunction with study management or facility software, data collection time is also optimized. Time and labor savings identifying animals adds up quickly over the course of each study with regular measurements. When all things are considered together, i.e., the cost of the animals, the labor, and the entire study costs, the unequivocal accurate identification of each animal using RapID Tags is easily justified.
RapID Tags have been applied to lab mice at three weeks without any problems. It may be possible to apply them to younger mice, but we cannot guarantee their use until ongoing testing has been completed.
Yes. RapID Tags have undergone both histology testing and actual in-laboratory testing at numerous organizations. Results from these studies have confirmed that RapID Tags perform very well with no inflammation issues noted to date. RapID Lab maintains an ongoing development program which benefits from customer feedback and suggestions used in continued improvement of the product.
Scanning RapID Tags with popular laboratory scanners, like the CODE CR1500 scanner, works well with many configurations of software and hardware. More detailed information about software and hardware configurations can be found HERE.
Manual animal identification methods can be easily misapplied and are often misread, with sometimes serious consequences. Ear-notches/punches can grow back making accurate identification increasingly difficult or impossible. They can also require punching from one to eight holes. All traditional, manual lab animal ID methods are painful to the rodent and potentially a source of infection. Tattoos are associated with an immune response (macrophage infiltration) which is usually undesirable for some research. RapID Tags are the most humane, accurate, multi-color, automated, lab animal ID tags available