Digital Angel Corporation Receives Government Approvals to Operate in Uruguay and Chile, Key Components of MERCOSUR Common Marke

Initial Orders of 80,000 Tags Have Been Received 


SO. ST. PAUL, Minn., Dec. 12  /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Digital Angel Corporation (AMEX:DOC), an advanced technology company in the field of rapid and accurate identification, location tracking, and condition monitoring of high-value assets, announced today that it has received government approval from Uruguay and Chile to operate in those countries, further expanding the Company's presence in the rapidly expanding livestock markets of South America.  Digital Angel already has offices in Argentina and Brazil and there are currently more than 200 million cattle raised in the region.

"These countries are significant not only because they are important areas for livestock, but also because they are part of the MERCOSUR common market, a trading block of six countries representing more than two-thirds of South America's population and a GDP of more than $1 trillion," said Digital Angel President and CEO Kevin McGrath.  The MERCOSUR countries include Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, Chile and Bolivia.

To date, Digital Angel has sold approximately 30,000 electronic RFID livestock tags in Chile and nearly 50,000 visual livestock tags in Uruguay. The Company, which announced last month that it had sold more than 1.1 million livestock tags in Argentina alone in 2005, including more than 400,000 in recent weeks, exceeded its sales guidance for all of South America of 1 million livestock tags sold during the year.

McGrath said the new operations in Uruguay and Chile are important components in the Company's global strategy as well as in its effort to be the leading tag supplier throughout all of the Americas.  The new operations also complement the Company's existing operations in Argentina and Brazil, he noted.

"South America is an important and rapidly growing livestock market, which makes these government approvals significant milestones for Digital Angel," McGrath said.  "We have already had a very good year in the region and the addition of our presence in Uruguay and Chile promises to make the future that much better.  With the move toward traceable beef in the EU, Japan and the United States, South American beef producing countries understand the importance of tagging, tracking and identifying their animals, particularly if they want to sell into the global market, which is one of the reasons why our products are being so well received.  Given our success to date, we intend to manufacture livestock tags in the region in 2006."

About Digital Angel Corporation

Digital Angel Corporation develops and deploys sensor and communications technologies that enable rapid and accurate identification, location tracking, and condition monitoring of high-value assets.  Applications for the Company's products include identification and monitoring of humans, pets, fish, poultry and livestock through its patented implantable microchips; location tracking and message monitoring of vehicles and aircraft in remote locations through systems that integrate GPS and geosynchronous satellite communications; and

monitoring of asset conditions such as temperature and movement, through advanced miniature sensors.

Digital Angel Corporation is majority-owned by Applied Digital Inc. (NASDAQ:ADSX).  For more information about Digital Angel, please visit http://www.digitalangelcorp.com/.

The statements in this press release that are not strictly historical, are "forward-looking" statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and are intended to be covered by the safe harbors created by these sections. The forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties and the actual results that the Company achieves may differ materially from these forward-looking statements due to such risks and uncertainties, including, but not limited to, that the Company's majority stockholder, Applied Digital Inc. owns 55.4% of the Company's common stock; that new accounting pronouncements may impact the Company's future results of operation; that the Company may continue to incur losses, that infringements by third parties on the Company's intellectual property or development of substantially equivalent proprietary technology by the Company's competitors could negatively affect the Company's business; that domestic and foreign government regulation and other factors could impair the Company's ability to develop and sell the Company's products in certain markets; that the Company relies on sales to government contractors of its animal identification products, and any decline in the demand by these customers for the Company's products could negatively affect the Company's business; that the Company depends on a single production arrangement for its patented syringe-injectable microchips; that the Company depends on principal customers; that the Company competes with other companies and the products sold by the Company's competitors could become more popular than the Company's products or render the Company's products as obsolete; that the Company's earnings will decline if the Company must write-off goodwill and other intangible assets; that the exercise of options and warrants outstanding and available for issuance may adversely affect the market price of the Company's common stock; that currency exchange rate fluctuations could have an adverse effect on the Company's sales and financial results; and that the Company depends on a small team of senior management and the Company may have difficulty attracting and retaining additional personnel.  A detailed statement of risks and uncertainties is contained in the Company's reports to the Securities and Exchange Commission, including in particular the Company's Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2004.  Investors and stockholders are urged to read this document carefully.  The Company can offer no assurances that any projections, assumptions or forecasts made or discussed in this release will be met, and investors should understand the risks of investing solely due to such projections.  The Company undertakes no obligation to revise any forward-looking statements in order to reflect events or circumstances that may arise after the date of this press release.

  Contact:  Allen & Caron Inc
            Michael Lucarelli (investors)          Brian Kennedy (media)
            212-691-8087                           212-691-8087
                         

DATASOURCE: Digital Angel Corporation



CONTACT:  Investors, Michael Lucarelli, [phone],

, or Media, Brian Kennedy, [phone],

, both of Allen & Caron Inc for Digital Angel Corporation



Web site:  http://www.digitalangelcorp.com/

Copyright