The non-invasive and automated detection of bovine respiratory disease onset in receiver calves using infrared thermography

Bovine respiratory disease complex (BRD) causes considerable economic loss and biosecurity cost to the beef industry globally and also results in significant degradation to the welfare of affected animals. The successful treatment of this disease depends on the early, timely and cost effective identification of affected animals. The objective of the present study was to investigate the use of an automated, RFID driven, noninvasive infrared thermography technology to determine BRD in cattle. Sixty-five calves averaging 220 kg were exposed to standard industry practices of transport and auction. The animals were monitored for BRD using conventional biometric signs for clinical scores, core temperatures, haematology, serum cortisol and infrared thermal values over 3 weeks. The data collected demonstrated that true positive animals for BRD based on a gold standard including core temperature, clinical score, white blood cell number and neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio displayed higher peak infrared thermal values of 35.7 ± 0.35 °C compared to true negative animals 34.9 ± 0.22 °C (P < 0.01). The study also demonstrated that such biometric data can be non-invasively and automatically collected based on a system developed around the animal’s water station. It is concluded that the deployment of such systems in the cattle industry would aid animal managers and practitioners in the identification and management of BRD in cattle populations.