UK: British people want to detect respiratory diseases in the breathing air of calves

Respiratory diseases are estimated to cost British cattle farmers around £80 million annually. Early detection of respiratory diseases can therefore yield significant savings. Scotland's Rural College, the UK Center for Ecology & Hydrolog, sensor developer Roboscientific, vaccine manufacturer Zoetis and stable furnisher Ritchie are working together in the project. First, analyzes are made of the breath of healthy calves and calves with a respiratory disease. Based on this, Roboscientific is developing a sensor that can determine the differences between healthy and sick calves. A previously conducted small-scale study has already shown that it should be possible to find differences in breathing air. Sensor in feeding box Ultimately, the sensors will be placed in feeding boxes on six large dairy farms. The calves are fed in these boxes and their breathing air is then analyzed. Because the calves wear an ...