Advanced ID Corporation announced a distribution agreement with Carlyle Group that calls for mandatory microchip identification of over 1 million dogs in Guangdong province.

The Carlyle Group is a registered company in China which is owned 40% by the Chinese government.

"There are well over 50 million dogs in China and this distribution partnership is the beginning of providing products, software and know-how through Advanced ID Corporation to meet this large market, we are proud to have been selected as a partner to this most important and evolving market. Our contract terms include supplying over 550,000 Advanced ID Pet Microchips in just the first few years of our distributorship agreement. This program is a good example of our efforts in this most important region", according to Dan Finch, President and CEO of Advanced ID Corporation.

Guangdong Carlyle RFID Technologies , a venture company developed specifically by Carlyle and the government for companion and livestock animal identification efforts, says this is the first step in a goal to develop both a companion animal and livestock tracking system for China.

Tracking systems like these can also be used to get faster information about the source of human maladies such as bird flu or mad cow disease.