Mad Cow Spurs Livestock Tracking (Wired)

WiredにRFIDなどを使って食用牛をトラッキングするシステムについての記事があった。USDAはそのような中央管理データベースの導入を示唆したけど、どうなるかね。ほかの国々での対応策は以下の通り。

In Canada, where the beef industry maintains a centralized cattle database, RFID tags are due to replace by Jan. 1, 2005, the current, time-consuming record-keeping method -- bar codes that must be read by handheld scanners.

In Britain,... every cow gets an individual identity number and its own checkbook-style "passport" that is checked by the British Cattle Movement Service, a central authority. British authorities say they believe an electronic ID will probably become compulsory in the next few years.

In Japan, which rushed a livestock-screening and database system into place after the country's first mad cow case in 2001, authorities plan to give consumers "farm-to-fork" traceability of beef by the end of 2004. Cows' 10-digit identification numbers, tagged to their ears, will appear on labels of beef in stores, letting consumers look up data on the animals on the Internet.