Innovations in Cattle Farming: Application of Innovative Technologies and Sensors in the Diagnosis of Diseases

Animals (Basel). 2023 Feb 21;13(5):780. doi: 10.3390/ani13050780.

Abstract

Precision livestock farming has a crucial function as farming grows in significance. It will help farmers make better decisions, alter their roles and perspectives as farmers and managers, and allow for the tracking and monitoring of product quality and animal welfare as mandated by the government and industry. Farmers can improve productivity, sustainability, and animal care by gaining a deeper understanding of their farm systems as a result of the increased use of data generated by smart farming equipment. Automation and robots in agriculture have the potential to play a significant role in helping society fulfill its future demands for food supply. These technologies have already enabled significant cost reductions in production, as well as reductions in the amount of intensive manual labor, improvements in product quality, and enhancements in environmental management. Wearable sensors can monitor eating, rumination, rumen pH, rumen temperature, body temperature, laying behavior, animal activity, and animal position or placement. Detachable or imprinted biosensors that are adaptable and enable remote data transfer might be highly important in this quickly growing industry. There are already multiple gadgets to evaluate illnesses such as ketosis or mastitis in cattle. The objective evaluation of sensor methods and systems employed on the farm is one of the difficulties presented by the implementation of modern technologies on dairy farms. The availability of sensors and high-precision technology for real-time monitoring of cattle raises the question of how to objectively evaluate the contribution of these technologies to the long-term viability of farms (productivity, health monitoring, welfare evaluation, and environmental effects). This review focuses on biosensing technologies that have the potential to change early illness diagnosis, management, and operations for livestock.

Keywords: biosensors; dairy cattle; early diagnosis; precision dairy farming; sensors technology.

Publication types

  • Review

Grants and funding

This research received no external funding.