Abstract
Body temperature (BT) monitoring in cattle could be used to early detect fever from infectious disease or physiological events. Various ways to measure BT have been applied at different locations on cattle including rectum, reticulum, milk, subcutis and ear canal. In other to evaluate the temperature stability and reliability of subcutaneous temperature (ST) in highly fluctuating field conditions for continuous BT monitoring, long term ST profiles were collected and analyzed from cattle in autumn/winter and summer season by surgically implanted thermo-logger devices. Purposes of this study were to assess ST in the field condition as a reference BT and to determine any location effect of implantation on ST profile. In results, ST profile in cattle showed a clear circadian rhythm with daily lowest at 05:00 to 07:00 AM and highest around midnight and rather stable temperature readings (mean±standard deviation [SD], 37.1°C to 37.36°C±0.91°C to 1.02°C). STs are 1.39°C to 1.65°C lower than the rectal temperature and sometimes showed an irregular temperature drop below the normal physiologic one: 19.4% or 36.4% of 54,192 readings were below 36.5°C or 37°C, respectively. Thus, for BT monitoring purposes in a fever-alarming-system, a correction algorithm is necessary to remove the influences of ambient temperature and animal resting behavior especially in winter time. One way to do this is simply discard outlier readings below 36.5°C or 37°C resulting in a much improved mean±SD of 37.6°C±0.64°C or 37.8°C±0.55°C, respectively. For location the upper scapula region seems the most reliable and convenient site for implantation of a thermo-sensor tag in terms of relatively low influence by ambient temperature and easy insertion compared to lower scapula or lateral neck.
Highlights
Frequent epidemic outbreaks in domestic animals such as foot and mouth disease (FMD) and avian influenza (AI) seriously threaten the national economy in many countries (Joo et al, 2002; Olsen et al, 2005; McLaws et al, 2009)
In a case study of a simulated outbreak of FMD in California, $565 million of additional economic loss was forecast for every hour delay of detection after 21 days emphasizing the critical importance of early detection methods including body temperature (BT) monitoring systems which could alert farm workers to deal properly and promptly with the situation (Carpenter et al, 2011)
This research group is performing a project to develop a real time BT monitoring system for early detection of infectious disease in domestic cattle by combining a Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) thermo-sensor tag which would be subcutaneously implanted into each cattle (Won et al, 2012)
Summary
Frequent epidemic outbreaks in domestic animals such as foot and mouth disease (FMD) and avian influenza (AI) seriously threaten the national economy in many countries (Joo et al, 2002; Olsen et al, 2005; McLaws et al, 2009). This research group is performing a project to develop a real time BT monitoring system for early detection of infectious disease in domestic cattle by combining a Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) thermo-sensor tag which would be subcutaneously implanted into each cattle (Won et al, 2012). These BT monitoring systems are designed to detect a cow with abnormally elevated body temperature, immediately alert a farm manager who will check and take the necessary action such as isolation of the suspicious cow from the herd to prevent further spread of a pathogenic infection. In order to evaluate the temperature stability and reliability of ST in highly fluctuating field conditions, long term ST readings were collected and analyzed from cattle in autumn/winter and summer season using commercial thermo-loggers surgically implanted in three different locations
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