Application of Radio Frequency Identification to Selection for Genetic improvement of Rural Livestock Breeds in Developing Countries

This paper presents technical report on the application of radio frequency identification (RFID) systems to animal breeding and herd management. The proposal involve use of RFID transponders, readers and software and the planning of equipment, that had been tested both in the laboratory and in barns as documented by various authors. Electronic identification of animals could be exploited by farmers to select superior animal for breeding for genetic improvement. It will also provide opportunity to increase the accuracy of record keeping, herd management and most importantly when pedigree selection is desired for selection of superior animals for breeding. The merits of RFID system is the accuracy of records it provide for effective selection for livestock breeding and management. The application of RFID for herd management system where each animal carries RFID tag, allows each breeding activity to be monitored, sires and dams of progenies for accurate record keeping. The read identification data from the RFID tag carried by the mounted female animal is use to generate breeding activity data including the identification data of the mounted female, mounting male and timing data for each mounting. The herd management system is adopted to process breeding activity data output from the breeding activity monitors to generate herd management data. Radio frequency identification if employed will alleviate challenges of livestock producers to ensure animal identification, record keeping, plan mating, herd management and most importantly will improve selection response.

Keywords: animal-identification, genetic-improvement, radio- frequency, selection.