25 August 2025

2 minute read

By: Global Ag Media

North America

In a recent press release, the US Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) announced a new initiative to provide no-cost RFID (radio frequency identification) ear tags for swine beginning fall 2025. These tags will be available for sow and exhibition swine producers. Once available, producers and State animal health officials will be able to order tags on the Merck Animal Health website.

In July 2025, APHIS awarded a contract to Merck Animal Health to supply up to $20 million in tags to sow and exhibition swine industry segments, over the next 5 years. Modelled after the no-cost RFID cattle tag program, this effort will supply no-cost RFID tags to swine producers to boost national swine disease traceability, which is vital to supporting the safety and marketability of the US swine herd. Although animal disease traceability does not prevent disease, an efficient and accurate traceability system reduces the response time involved in a disease investigation, limiting the number of farms and animals affected. This, in turn, reduces the economic impact on owners and affected communities.

Unique to this program is a direct-from-manufacturer to swine premises distribution model. Merck will receive, process, and ship orders directly to producers and State animal health officials, removing APHIS as intermediaries and expediting getting tags into producers’ hands and pigs’ ears. 

To order these tags, producers must have a valid premises identification number, provide shipping and contact information, and provide the number of sows onsite (for commercial sow farms) or the number of show pigs on the premises (for exhibition swine). State animal health officials will also be able to order no-cost RFID tags based on the number of sows in their State.

These RFID tags will need to be applied with a compatible tag applicator, which is not supplied through this program.