Methods and systems for administering a drug program related to livestock

• US 7,606,394 B2
• Filed: 04/02/2007
• Issued: 10/20/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 04/03/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Barclays Bank PLC (Barclays PLC)
• Original Assignee: Swift & Company (JBS USA Lux SA)
• Inventors: Mirtsching, Warren
• Primary Examiner(s): Strege; John B
• Application Number:
  US11/695,568
• Publication Number:
  US 20070258625A1
• Time in Patent Office: 932 Days
• Field of Search: 382/110, 340/540, 340/573.1
• US Class Current: 382/110
• CPC Class Codes: A22B 5/007 Non-invasive scanning of carcasses, e.g. using image recognition, tomography, X-rays, ultrasound analysing meat, e.g. search for foreign embedded objects G01N33/12; image analysis G06T7/00
• CPC Class Codes: A22C 17/10 Marking meat or sausages marking animals A01K11/00; labelling B65C
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/00 Administration; Management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/02 Agriculture; Fishing; Forestry; Mining
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 20/10 relating to drugs or medications, e.g. for ensuring correct administration to patients
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 30/40 for processing medical images, e.g. editing

Abstract

Systems and methods are described that provide a fast and simple way of administering a drug program related to livestock. Specifically, accurate, automated livestock-to-carcass, meat product, or organ identification systems are provided that can receive, compile and analyze information regarding the condition of a carcass, meat product, or organ in a form that is readily readable, transferable to others, and associated with, or linked to, other information such as the feedlot, lot and/or animal of origin as well as the presence or absence of an administered drug, combination of drugs, or drug program.

Claims

1. A method for administering a drug program related to livestock, comprising:

receiving a digital image of an organ from an animal depicting the quality or grading of said organ;

determining an animal from which the organ was derived;

associating the digital image and the determined animal with the presence or absence of a drug or combination of drugs that was previously administered to an animal; and

evaluating, by reference to the digital image depicting the organ, whether the determined animal has been treated with the drug or combination of drugs, wherein said evaluating step comprises reviewing said image for visual evidence of the presence of abnormalities of said organ.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the organ is selected from the group consisting of brain, liver, tongue, pancreas gland, thymus gland, stomach, feet, kidney, lungs, heart, small intestine, testicles, placenta, crop and caul.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the digital image is viewable in real time as said organ is passed within a field of view of a means for generating an image.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein said step of determining comprises correlating an identifying number of an individual animal with said organ.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the drug is an antibiotic drug.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the antibiotic drug is tylosin.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the livestock is a bovine, porcine or ovine animal.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the drug is a beta receptor agonist drug.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the beta receptor agonist drug is selected from the group consisting of racoptamine hydrochloride and zilpaterol hydrochloride.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising generating a report containing information regarding the presence or absence of a drug, combination of drugs, or drug program in the determined animal.

11. The method of claim 3, wherein said means for generating an image is selected from the group consisting of a digital color camera, a digital black and white camera, and a digital video camera.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the combination of drugs elicits an effect that is viewable in said digital image.

13. A method for administering a drug program related

to livestock, comprising:

separating at least one organ of interest from other organs;

grading the at least one organ of interest;

capturing an image of the at least one organ of interest;

associating the at least one organ of interest and the image with at least one of;

a) an animal and b) a lot of origin;

analyzing the image to determine the grade of the at least one organ of interest;

associating the determined grade of the at least one organ of interest with the at least one of an animal and lot of origin; and

determining the presence or absence of an administered drug or combination of drugs for one of the at least one of an animal and lot of origin, wherein said determining step comprises accessing visual evidence of said image for the presence of abnormalities of said at least one organ.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the at least one organ of interest is selected from the group consisting of brain, liver, tongue, pancreas gland, thymus gland, stomach, feet, kidney, lungs, heart, small intestine, testicles, placenta, crop and caul.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein the livestock is a bovine, porcine or ovine animal.

16. The method of claim 13, wherein the image is a digital image and is viewable in real time as said organ is passed within a field of view of at least one of a digital color camera, a digital black and white camera, or a digital video camera.

17. A method for determining whether a bovine animal was administered a drug, comprising:

capturing an image of a liver of a bovine animal after the animal has been slaughtered by passing said liver within a field of view of a means for generating an image;

associating the image with a lot of origin of the animal;

analyzing the image to determine whether the liver indicates that the animal has experienced infection or disease, said analyzing step comprising a review of visual evidence of liver abnormalities; and

determining whether the animal was previously administered a drug or combination of drugs.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the step of capturing comprises generating a digital image and said means for generating an image is selected from the group consisting of a digital camera and a digital video camera.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein said step of determining comprises correlating an identifying number of an individual animal and said liver.

20. The method of claim 17, wherein the drug is an antibiotic drug.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the antibiotic drug is tylosin.

22. The method of claim 17, wherein the combination of drugs comprises at least one antibiotic drug.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein the antibiotic drug is tylosin.

24. A method for determining whether a bovine or porcine animal was administered a drug, comprising:

capturing an image of at least one lung of the bovine or porcine animal after the animal has been slaughtered by passing the at least one lung within the field of view of a means for generating an image;

associating the image with a lot of origin of the animal;

analyzing the image to determine whether the at least one lung indicates that the animal has experienced infection or disease, said analyzing step comprising a review of visual evidence for the presence of lung abnormalities; and

determining whether the animal was previously administered a drug or combination of drugs, said drug or combination of drugs comprising at least an antibiotic, and wherein said determining comprises correlating an identifying number of an individual animal with said at least one lung.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein the means for generating an image is selected from the group consisting of a digital color camera and a digital video camera.

26. A method for determining whether a bovine animal was administered a drug, comprising:

capturing an image of the rib eye of a bovine animal after the animal has been slaughtered by passing the rib eye within the field of view of a means for generating an image;

associating the image with a lot of origin of the animal;

analyzing the image to determine the degree of marbling in the rib eye;

determining the grade of the rib eye;

associating a determined grade of the rib eye with the lot of origin; and

determining whether the animal was previously administered a drug or combination of drugs by correlating an identifying number of an animal with said rib eye, said determining step comprising reviewing visual evidence on said image depicting the presence or absence of abnormalities.

27. The method of claim 26, wherein the drug is a beta receptor agonist drug.

28. The method of claim 27, wherein the beta receptor agonist drug is selected from the group consisting of racoptamine hydrochloride and zilpaterol hydrochloride.

29. The method of claim 26, wherein said means for generating an image is a digital camera.