Healthy herds: Innovations in disease detection in the field

Exciting new developments are being made in the field of precision livestock management in extensive production systems. Research by Central Queensland University (CQU) has been looking at how sensor systems can be used to remotely detect disease in grazing sectors such as beef, sheep, and goats, providing valuable information on the health status of animals that would otherwise be difficult to obtain. 

Mark Trotter, Professor of Precision Livestock Management at CQU, has been leading this research and spoke to the Farm Biosecurity team about his work and the many benefits it will have for livestock management and biosecurity. Through the use of sensor ear tags with in-built GPS and accelerometer, Mark and his team can gather real-time data on an animal’s location and movements in what he described as something like an Apple Watch or Fitbit for livestock. 

These high-tech ear tags can detect disease and illness in livestock – from thousands of kilometres away 

A key difficulty with extensive enterprises is the lack of visibility of livestock, especially on an individual level. While intensive systems such as pork, poultry and dairy provide regular opportunities for producers to assess the health and behaviour of animals, this is much more challenging for enterprises such as extensive beef cattle where stations can span hundreds or thousands of hectares.  

Mark’s research uses raw spatial and movement data gathered from the sensor ear tags to provide information on key behaviours that may indicate the animal is affected by an illness or disease. This is done by converting this raw data using specially developed algorithms into information such as time spent grazing, standing, and ruminating. Data is transmitted using terrestrial satellite or radio connectivity, providing the researcher or producer with live updates on the animals.  

So far, this technology has been used to isolate behaviours associated with: 

• Viral infections and plant toxicities  
• Physical injury and dystocia 
• Lameness in sheep indicates footrot 
• Increases in intestinal parasites  
• Bovine ephemeral fever (BEF). 

Could sensor ear tags be used to detect exotic emergency animal diseases such as foot and mouth disease? 

In short – yes! Regarding foot and mouth disease (FMD), Mark says “For a disease like FMD, where the behavioural symptoms are so obvious, we will likely be able to pick this up quite quickly (rapid drop in locomotion, feed intake and rumination) … I’m a firm believer that these systems could make a massive difference in the detection and management of an EAD [emergency animal disease] like FMD. We just need to work through a few issues to get these systems up and running in this context”. This may not be true for all EADs, however. EADs such as lumpy skin disease lack the overt behavioural signs required to make an early disease detection in the field.  

What barriers exist before producers can implement the sensors in a commercial setting? 

The unit cost of these “smart tags” currently ranges from $50 to $250, which is seen as cost-prohibitive to producers when implementing them on a larger scale. However, a solution exists in the application of a “sentinel approach”. This would see the tags used on a small number of animals but still provide producers with benefits at a much lower investment cost. Mark believes that this approach could revolutionise the way we monitor animals in terms of biosecurity by providing a very cost-effective way of picking up problems well before a human observer can find them. 

For now, extensive livestock producers can consider how they might embrace these new emerging technologies to better safeguard their businesses against biosecurity threats, as well as make improvements to production efficiencies and animal health outcomes. 

You can access Mark’s research here: Mark Trotter – CQUniversity 

Special thanks to Mark Trotter for his participation in this piece.