Faulty pet microchips recalled
2012-12-12 11:31
Cape Town - A company has recalled thousands of faulty
microchips used to track pets because they are not readable by scanners, it was
reported on Wednesday.
According to the Cape Argus, a particular batch of Back Home
Biotec microchips were found to be faulty in February this year and were
recently recalled worldwide after a trial in Europe.
The batch had the prefixes 900088 up to 900008800259208.
"We don't know exactly what the problem is, it's an
international problem... it seems the moisture was getting into the
chips," local distributor Virbac SA's Harry Edwards said.
The owners of local pets fitted with the faulty microchips
had already been notified to take them to vets for free replacements.
Virbac SA said all chips supplied from April 2012 were
unaffected by the fault.
Microchips, which are usually the size of a grain of rice,
are placed under the skin of an animal and are coded with the owner's details.
If the animal runs away and is picked up, an animal shelter
or veterinarian scans the animal for a chip.
It costs between R150 and R300 to have a pet microchipped.
- SAPA
