The Use of an Activity Monitoring System for the Early Detection of Health Disorders in Young Bulls
Published on 05/11/2019
In large, intensive beef production systems, the identification of sick animals can be difficult. Activity monitors may be able to help identify sick cattle earlier based on behavior changes. In this study, sick bulls started to behave differently from healthy bulls at least 10 days before the appearance of clinical signs. A prediction model identified bulls at risk of becoming sick nine days before the visual diagnosis based on: time at the feed bunk; time lying down; and frequency of lying bouts.