from The Jockey Club
The Jockey Club is now offering microchips for sale to interested owners and breeders for use in Thoroughbreds residing within the United States, the organization announced March 12.
Microchips are not currently a requirement for Thoroughbred registration, and participation is voluntary.
“In the U.S., a number of industry groups and trade associations are realizing the value of microchips as a means to support genetic testing and traditional markings-based procedures and provide an additional layer of confidence in identification at horse farms, veterinary clinics, transportation centers, horse sales, and racetracks,” said Matt Iuliano, The Jockey Club’s vice president of registration services. “After a careful and comprehensive study, we thought the time had come to offer microchips to owners and breeders.”
The Jockey Club offers LifeChip microchips, which are ISO 11784-compliant and manufactured by Digital Angel Corp. Each microchip contains a unique 15-number sequence beginning with 840 (the U.S. country code). The microchips comply with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Animal Identification System and are consistent with those utilized by international Thoroughbred stud book authorities.
Microchips are available for $20 each (Kentucky and New York residents should add applicable sales tax). Microchips can be ordered by logging on to The Jockey Club’s Interactive Registration Web site at http://www.registry.jockeyclub.com.
The Jockey Club will ship microchips only to addresses associated with a premises identification number issued by the appropriate state or tribal animal health authority. To receive a PIN, Thoroughbred farm owners/operators may visit http://animalid.aphis.usda.gov/nais/premises_id/index.shtml.
The American Association of Equine Practitioners has determined that the implantation of a microchip is a veterinary procedure. An instructional video on microchip implantation is available at http://www.aaep.org/microchip_video.htm.
In order to be an effective identification tool, once the microchip is implanted, the microchip number must be reported to The Jockey Club through the Microchip Requesting, Reporting, and Lookup area of IR. Microchip reporting and lookup are provided at no charge.