According to the United States Department of Agriculture, animal ID & tracking systems would facilitate easy & early detection of animal disease outbreaks and tracks the source of disease to prevent future incidents by timely compartmentalisation.

Helps limit economic loss

Rapid identification of animals is tremendously important to help contain the spread of disease before it reaches the human population. Furthermore, proper animal tagging methods also increase domestic marketing opportunities for farmers by claiming certain breed labels and allowing them to command premium prices in retail markets. Government-coordinated programmes, such as USDA’s AMS (Agriculture Marketing Service), have been established specifically for these purposes. The emergence of disease outbreaks like Foot and Mouth Diseases, Avian Influenza, and African Swine Fever, among others, in livestock has emphasised the value of routine disease surveillance and prompt identification of infected animals to prevent economic losses. The more rapid the identification or traceability of infection is responded to, the more limited the damages in production are faced by farmers.

Animal ID business now recovering rapidly 

Therefore, easy maintenance of disease records, tracking the mortality & vaccination status of registered animals, and claiming disaster insurance, etc., are some of the benefits received by animal owners for officially tagging their animals. The Covid-19 pandemic has delayed the manufacturing and distribution processes of animal identification tags, readers/scanners, and other solutions offered by key players in the market. For instance, Allflex (Merck Animal Health) stated that the pandemic has affected animal identification tag sales, like several other industries owing to port congestion, logistics & freight delays, and quarantine & Covid-related illness among the company’s workforces. The company stated that during the pandemic, the sales of a few segments of its portfolio were delayed, particularly the printed animal tags. However, the resumption of activities in the following years enabled the businesses to recover at a rapid pace.

Some facts and figures from the research

• Based on the animal type, the livestock animals segment generated the largest revenue share of 55.7% in 2025.
• The hardware segment dominated the market with the highest revenue share of 50.0% in 2025. In the U.S., since January 1, 2023, RFID tags have been approved to be the only official identification device for moving cattle species.
• The non-permanent segment held the dominant revenue share in 2025. This segment comprises the largely adopted ID systems, such as RFID ear or body tags, GPS-based wearables, visual tags, paints, and temporary branding.
• The wearable segment dominated the market with a revenue share of 54.3% in 2025. Recent advancements in wearable technologies have customised identification devices to meet the specific requirements of individual animals, such as livestock, pets, wild, or lab species.
• The North American animal identification market dominates the scene and held a 35.1% share of the global market in 2025.

Key players

Some of the main businesses already involved in this market include companies such as, Merck & Co., Avid Identification Systems, Datamars, HID Global Corporation, Shearwell Data Limited, AEG Identification Systems, Avery Dennison, GAO RFID, Fitbark and RFID.