There has been a lot of talk over the last 10 years or so about ISO and what it means to the Electronic Animal ID industry. Many saw the National Microchip Database as the holy grail of money making ventures. ELF have always resisted attempts by others in the marketplace to “tie up” the value of the microchip by masquerading a reunification service as the national database. The technology of the microchip is simple. It either conforms to ISO or it doesn’t. The real compliance comes with the commitment of transponder manufacturers and promoters to wholly support the standards. Only those transponder manufacturers who have had their microchips verified by ISO can claim product compliance in this regard. Manufacturers should also however sign the Code of Conduct. ELF Group supplies ISO standard microchips only from manufacturers who have signed the code of conduct. The really important bit of the ISO standards is of course, the use of the National Country Code. Only when a National Microchip Database has been set up can the country code be used. This database will be in existence solely for the purpose of checking each and every microchip that enters the Irish market to ensure its code hasn’t been used before. Lets kill a myth here and now...It is not a database set up to reunite pets with owners or prove ownership. This is impossible for the National Database, as it gathers its information before the microchips enter the market, never mind being implanted! Commercial databases which offer value added services to owners of implanted animals have a very important part to play, however they are of no concern to ISO. They close the circle on this valuable technology for sure - providing a service based on the unique code of each chip - however if its code includes the Irish identifier, it can only be guaranteed to be unique by a National Database. In Ireland we do not have such a database.  ELF have been to the forefront for many years of canvassing that such a National database be established. It can be run by any organisation, once it has a government mandate to ensure uniqueness of microchip numbers. Once it is set up, we can start to use our country code in the numbers of our microchips. Until then, the only valid ISO microchips, are those using a manufacturers code. Chips currently in the market with the National Code are not only damaging to but also setting back the implementation of the ISO standards in Ireland. ELF Group Holdings - Home of Electronic Animal ID Microchips . Readers . Scanners . Implanters . Canulas . Ear Tags .