Introduction

This is a method to continuously measure ruminal motility and detect the frequency and duration of different behaviors assumed by the animal. Since ruminal motility is related to feed transit speed, its monitoring would allow not only to verify the health status, but also that the  provided feed ration is optimal for high production performance.

Technical features

In intensive livestock farms, it is not easy to evaluate the health condition of the animal. In ruminants and in cattle in particular, diseases related to unbalanced feeding and characterized by altered ruminal motility, lameness and digestive system malfunction, are common.
The continuous detection provided by this method would allow prevention or therapeutic intervention in the early stages of disease. This invention involves the application of an accelerometer at a specific location on the animal and complex processing of the data obtained from the device by which output on ruminal motility, time spent in station or decubitus by the animal, and walking time can be obtained. In addition to the numerical values, summary categorical indices that indicate whether the values are within normal, below normal, or above normal, are provided and facilitate the judgment of the end user.
TRL 5

Possible Applications

• Zootechnology;
• Ruminant husbandry;
• Ruminant veterinary services.

Advantages

• Continuous measurement;
• Unique system involving ruminal motility monitoring;
• Application on the animal’s flank pit allows the adaptation of the algorithms used and also to determine the respiratory rate of the animals, which is useful data in the early diagnosis of respiratory diseases.