NMT produces five Coded Wire Tags formats:
- Standard
- One and a half-length
- Half-length
- Sequential
- Agency-only
This is a magnified section of standard format Coded Wire before the tags have been cut for injection. A tag can be cut from anywhere along the wire and would be slightly wider than one full code sequence, in this case 165809, and the triangular flag. The flag tells you where to start reading the code from left to right. The code is repeated on four “sides” of the wire.
The coding on the tags allows for either batch or individual identification. Batch codes have the same code repeated on each tag. They are used to identify a group of animals sharing one or more characteristics, and are most commonly used for stock assessment and evaluating hatchery rearing practices. Standard, one and a half length, half-length and agency-only formats have batch coding.
Sequential Coded Wire Tags are designed to identify individuals or small groups; each tag has a batch code and an individual code.
For more details about each format please see: