Advanced Telemetry System for Early Detection of Feedlot Disease and Lifetime Tracking

The US cattle industry is subjected to two billion dollars in health care costs and losses annually. The majority of these losses relating to feedlots are a result of dense animal populations. Historically diagnosis of sick animals has been visual and by the time a sick animal is identified the illness is advanced. In the case of communicable diseases the infected animals have had time to infect others. Death loss, treatment cost, lost productivity, lower meat quality and diseases that go undiagnosed are the major components of the industry's health care problems. Additionally, the threat of terrorist activity and the diagnosis of Mad Cow have fast tracked the development of a national animal ID program to protect the US food supply. The proposed system will provide continuous electronic monitoring of beef cattle and will provide early warning of the onset of disease as much as two to five days earlier than current visual diagnostic methods. Early diagnosis will reduce the number of infected animals by allowing the quarantine of sick animals prior to infecting others and will allow earlier and more successful treatment of those that become sick. Additionally, inherent in the system's design is the ability to track individual animal history. The cost of adapting the system to provide animal ID tracking and trace-back will be minimal as a result of the system having been cost justified by its use as a health monitoring tool.