Maybe the motivation is bird flu preparedness. If it ever becomes that big a threat, they'll kill all of the chickens except for a select few sequestered in the lab, and most of the wildfowl, then rebreed. That would make more sense than tracking through 15 digits of chicken ID to contain an epidemic.
This isn't like mad cow, where it is rare and the numbers of animals in a given lot of meat products is manageable. How many chicken IDs do you think go into a bucket of chicken nuggets?
Thats one of the selling points that resonates with the sheeple but having a database will do nothing to stop the spread once it starts
Bingo. That and mad cow disease. An outbreak of either can cost billions. The idea is to be able to trace any animal quickly and control the spread of disease.
"Hey....look what I just bit down on! It's got some little number on it."