Investigation on temperature sensing injectable transponders for electronic animal identification an evaluation of suitable injection sites with bull calves.

摘要

The measurement of body core temperature is a helpful tool for the early recognition of diseases in cattle, especially in critical periods like transition periods of dairy cows. Up to now, temperature measurement was almost done manually measuring rectal temperature. Nevertheless, there is an increasing demand on automatic and continuously measuring devices considering the growing herd size of dairy farms. Technical solutions exist already; an interesting option seems to be a link between electronic identification and bolus or injectable transponders and sensors for physiological measures like heart rate, temperature or pH. The objective of our study was the evaluation of injectable transponders with a temperature measuring option in cattle. In the study injectable transponders with an integrated temperature sensor were tested in twelve male Holstein calves at three different application points: Under the scutulum of the left ear, at the base of the right ear and at the left side of the neck in the middle between poll and withers. Under four different climatic situations, the temperatures of the transponders were recorded using a hand held reader. The rectal temperature was measured simultaneously. The different temperatures of the application point show the dependence of the application point.