New microchip IDs pet, takes its temperature

SOUTH ST. PAUL, Minn. — Ten years ago, Randy Geissler placed a computer chip in his father's hand. Encased in a tiny glass tube, it wasn't much bigger than a grain of rice.

Geissler's father, a dairy farmer from Chippewa Falls, Wis., stared incredulously. "What are you going to do with that?"

A decade later, Geissler says he often answers a different question: "What can't you do with that?"

Today, those chips — developed by Digital Angel Corp. in South St. Paul — are implanted in more than 30 million pets, livestock and fish worldwide, providing instant electronic identification.

Now Digital Angel is poised to take the next step — chips that will not only identify an animal but begin to tell how it feels. Earlier this year, Digital Angel won USDA and FDA approval to market the Bio-Thermo microchip, which gauges an animal's body temperature. The company plans future biosensor chips that track an animal's hormonal changes, blood pressure and, eventually, disease.

"The idea is to unlock what's inside, essentially give them voices to tell us how they feel," Geissler said.

It's a similar business plan to the one Geissler used for his company's ID chip, which is marketed under several different names, including Home Again. The chip, which has reunited many lost pets with their owners, can also be used by farmers to track livestock. The federal government buys it to monitor salmon.

The tiny glass tube — with a microchip and antennae inside — is inserted just beneath an animal's skin, much like a vaccine injection. Its electronic circuitry operates only when it's scanned by a handheld device, which emits a low-frequency radio signal to activate the chip.

The Bio-Thermo chip works the same way, except it transmits more information.

"The product will talk back from inside the body of the animal and will say, 'Hey, I'm Fluffy and my body temperature is 101 degrees Fahrenheit,' " Geissler said.

The device could mean veterinarians wouldn't have to wrestle with scared animals when it comes time to use a rectal thermometer.

And pet owners who were already willing to pay for the ID chip would get an added feature for the same price, though they would have to bring their pet to a vet or buy a scanner — which Digital Angel doesn't currently market — to check the temperature.