Developing an accurate remote early disease identification system in cattle to promote judicious use of antimicrobials.

Bovine respiratory disease (BRD) is the most common and economically significant disease in beef calves costing the industry over $700 million annually. Antimicrobial BRD therapy can be effective when applied appropriately; however, conventional diagnostic methods rely almost exclusively on human observation resulting in numerous misclassifications. A remote early disease identification (REDI) system has been created to continuously monitor cattle behavior and accurately diagnose BRD. Preliminary research shows that REDI improves diagnostic accuracy and identifies BRD up to 2 days before human observers. An opportunity exists to use REDI for accurate BRD detection to promote rational therapy, which is an important strategy to reduce antimicrobial resistance. Our long term goal is commercialization of a technology promoting judicious antimicrobial use and improved cattle health through enhanced BRD diagnostics. The goal of this proposal is to evaluate potential differences in health, performance, and economics when comparing cattle managed conventionally to cattle using the REDI system. Project objectives will be achieved through clinical trials comparing REDI to a visual observer and monitoring relevant outcomes. We hypothesize REDI will provide economic benefits compared to visual observation resulting from improved health outcomes due to early BRD identification, better cattle performance because subclinical cases were identified, lower treatment costs due to judicious use of antimicrobials, and less labor expenses due to efficient personnel allocation.