System and methods for health monitoring of anonymous animals in livestock groups

• US 8,297,231 B2
• Filed: 02/03/2009
• Issued: 10/30/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 02/03/2009
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Faunus Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Faunus Ltd.
• Inventors: Yanai, Ehud, Elazari-Volcani, Ron
• Primary Examiner(s): Swiatek, Rob
• Assistant Examiner(s): Tsang, Lisa
• Application Number:
  US12/320,719
• Publication Number:
  US 20100198023A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,365 Days
• Field of Search: 119/14.14, 119/719, 119/720, 119/721, 119/851, 119/908, 119/174
• US Class Current: 119/174
• CPC Class Codes: A01K 29/005 Monitoring or measuring activity, e.g. detecting heat or mating
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0013 Medical image data A61B1/00011, A61B6/56, A61B8/56 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0077 Devices for viewing the surface of the body, e.g. camera, magnifying lens
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/7282 Event detection, e.g. detecting unique waveforms indicative of a medical condition A61B5/4094, A61B5/4818, A61B5/349, A61B5/0823 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61D 99/00 Subject matter not provided for in other groups of this subclass
• CPC Class Codes: A61F 7/00 Heating or cooling appliances for medical or therapeutic treatment of the human body heating or cooling means in connection with bedsteads or mattresses A47C21/00 ; massage, therapeutic baths A61H; hyperthermia using electric or magnetic fields or ultrasound A61N; electric heating elements H05B
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/00 Administration; Management
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/67 for remote operation
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 50/80 for detecting, monitoring or modelling epidemics or pandemics, e.g. flu

Abstract

A system and method for tracking the health of a group of livestock. In an exemplary embodiment of the invention, the vital signs of a small number of sentinel animals is tracked and used to assess the existence and/or progress of a disease in the group. In an exemplary embodiment of the invention, the vital signs are assessed using a vitality sensor, for example, an accelerometer which provides signals indicating the type and/or other properties of movements made by the sentinel animals.

Claims

1. A computerized method for monitoring the health of livestock groups, comprising:

collecting measurements data from a plurality of data collecting units, each data collecting unit comprising at least one sensor, said sensors selected from the group consisting of acoustic sensors, vitality meters, movement sensors, ammonia sensors, visual sensors and scent sensors, said plurality of units including a plurality of data collection units mounted on a plurality of sentinel individuals of a livestock group;

computing quantified records of the measurements data collected by said collecting;

comparing the computed records to pre-stored quantified records indicating one or more of normal status, abnormalities and pathologies, said pre-stored records being of the group and of other groups;

analyzing a result of said comparing, and

computing and comparing records of individual sentinels, wherein said comparing the computed records comprises comparing against the sentinel'"'"'s past performance and relative to the group,

wherein said livestock is in a poultry house.

2. A computerized method for monitoring the health of livestock groups, comprising:

attaching vitality meters to a sample of a statistically sufficient number of sentinels within the group;

collecting measurements data from a plurality of data collecting units, each data collection unit comprising at least one sensor, said sensors selected from the group consisting of acoustic sensors, said vitality meters, movement sensors, ammonia sensors, visual sensors and scent sensors, said plurality of units including a plurality of data collection units mounted on a plurality of sentinel individuals of a livestock group;

computing quantified records of the measurements data collected by said collecting;

comparing the computed records to pre-stored quantified records indicating one or more of normal status, abnormalities and pathologies, said pre-stored records being of the group and of other groups, and

analyzing a result of said comparing to assess a health state of the group, wherein said livestock is in a poultry house.

3. The method according to claim 2, wherein said sensors comprise identification means and wherein said measurements data is collected from a selected number of identified sensors.

4. The method according to claim 2, additionally comprising categorizing said quantified records of the measured data in view of said comparison results as new normal, abnormal or pathological phenomena, according to predefined criteria.

5. The method according to claim 4, wherein said predefined criteria comprise changes over time and/or in rate.

6. The method according to claim 2, additionally comprising analyzing said quantified records of the measured data for changes over time.

7. The method according to claim 2, wherein said analyzing comprises analyzing the comparison results of a plurality of measured parameters including both vitality or movement and acoustics.

8. The method according to claim 2, additionally comprising communicating an alert to a user device upon detection of a deviation from normal in data communicated by at least one of said data collecting units.

9. The method according to claim 8, wherein said user device is selected from the group to form a subgroup consisting of a personal computer, a telephone and a mobile phone.

10. The method according to claim 2, additionally comprising acquiring data from external measuring systems.

11. The method according to claim 10, wherein said external measuring systems are selected from the group consisting of feeding, watering, weighing, temperature and humidity.

12. The method according to claim 2, wherein said pre-stored quantified records pertaining to the acoustic sensors comprise vocal signatures.

13. The method according to claim 12, wherein said stored vocal signatures pertain to at least one of different parts of the day, different seasons and different stages of the group'"'"'s development, different species, different pathologies and different breeds.

14. The method according to claim 2, wherein each sentinel is provided with at least one of marking means and location means.

15. The method according to claim 2, wherein said livestock comprises chickens.

16. The method according to claim 2, comprising computing and comparing records of individual sentinels, wherein said comparing comprises comparing against the sentinel'"'"'s past performance and relative to the group.

17. The method according to claim 2, wherein said analyzing comprises detecting a change in the relative position of a sentinel'"'"'s measurements in the group.

18. The method according to claim 2, wherein said analysis comprises assessing vitality based on movements of an animal within said poultry house.

19. The method according to claim 2, wherein said analysis comprises assessing a health state of an entire flock of poultry based on vitality measurements of only part of said flock.

20. The method according to claim 2, wherein said analysis comprises assessing a health state of an animal based on individual movement thereof.

21. The method of claim 2, comprising assessing vitality and/or health based on an amount of movement of an animal.

22. The method of claim 2, comprising assessing vitality and/or health based on comparing movements of an animal to movements of other sentinel animals in said sample.

23. The method of claim 2, wherein analyzing comprises assessing a heath state of a flock by comparing sentinel measurements results to a predefined range of parameter values which indicate health.

24. The method of claim 2, wherein analyzing comprises analyzing the measurements of a plurality of sentinels to indicate a tendency of a disease to spread in the group.

25. The method of claim 2, wherein analyzing comprises assessing a disorder level based on a percentage of affected sentinel animals.

26. The method of claim 2, comprising assessing vitality and/or health based on a type of movement of an animal.