Apparatus and method for detecting disease in dairy animals
First Claim
1. An Apparatus for detecting udder disease in a dairy animal, the apparatus comprising:
- at least one accelerometer for attachment to a leg of the dairy animal; and
a processor operable to;
determine a measure of activity of the dairy animal to which the accelerometer is attached based on measurements from the accelerometer, wherein the determined measure of activity is a motion index calculated based on a measured net acceleration, minus an offset for gravity, of the accelerometer, summed over a period of time;
determine a measure of feeding of the dairy animal from a second sensor in a region of head or neck of the dairy animal, the measurement from the second sensor distinguishing feeding from activity associated with walking or kicking, anddetermine that the diary animal has the udder disease from a change in the measure of activity of the dairy animal based on the measurements from the at least one accelerometer and also the measure of feeding of the dairy animal obtained from the second sensor, and thereby detect the udder disease in the dairy animal based upon the determination.
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Accused Products
Abstract
Disclosed is apparatus and a method for detecting udder disease in dairy animals. An accelerometer is attached to each of a plurality of dairy animals. A processor determines a measure of the activity of the dairy animals to which the accelerometers are attached. Data is recorded by and automatically transmitted from a sensor unit secured to an animal, without the requirement for costly and time consuming chemical analysis of milk, or of visual or veterinary inspection of individual animals in a herd. The development of an udder disease in a dairy animal, such as mastitis, may be identified from a decrease in the monitored measure of activity of a dairy animal. A separate baseline measure of activity may be determined for each dairy animal and the activity of a plurality of dairy animals in one or more herds may be taken into account, in order to reduce false positives due to external effects which are not specific to a single dairy animal.
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Citations
17 Claims
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1. An Apparatus for detecting udder disease in a dairy animal, the apparatus comprising:
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at least one accelerometer for attachment to a leg of the dairy animal; and a processor operable to; determine a measure of activity of the dairy animal to which the accelerometer is attached based on measurements from the accelerometer, wherein the determined measure of activity is a motion index calculated based on a measured net acceleration, minus an offset for gravity, of the accelerometer, summed over a period of time; determine a measure of feeding of the dairy animal from a second sensor in a region of head or neck of the dairy animal, the measurement from the second sensor distinguishing feeding from activity associated with walking or kicking, and determine that the diary animal has the udder disease from a change in the measure of activity of the dairy animal based on the measurements from the at least one accelerometer and also the measure of feeding of the dairy animal obtained from the second sensor, and thereby detect the udder disease in the dairy animal based upon the determination. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
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9. A method of determining a presence of an udder disease in a dairy animal, comprising:
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using a computer processor, determining a measure of activity of the dairy animal using at least one accelerometer attached to a leg of the dairy animal, wherein the determined measure of activity is a motion index calculated based on a measured net acceleration, minus an offset for gravity, of the accelerometer, summed over a period of time, determining a measure of feeding activity of the dairy animal from a second sensor in a region of head or neck of the dairy animal, the measurement from the second sensor distinguishing feeding from activity associated with walking or kicking, and determining, that the dairy animal has the udder disease from a change in the measure of activity of the dairy animal based on the measurements from the at least one accelerometer and also the measure of feeding of the dairy animal obtained from the second sensor, and thereby detecting the udder disease in the dairy animal based upon the determination. - View Dependent Claims (10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
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17. A non-transitory computer readable medium encoded with a computer software program which, when executed on a computer processor, causes the computer processor to:
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determine a measure of activity of the dairy animal using an accelerometer attached to a leg of the dairy animal, wherein the determined measure of activity is a motion index calculated based on a measured net acceleration, minus an offset for gravity, of the accelerometer, summed over a period of time, determine a measure of feeding activity of the dairy animal from a second sensor in a region of head or neck of the dairy animal, the measurement from the second sensor distinguishing feeding from activity associated with walking or kicking, and determine that the dairy animal has an udder disease from a change in the measure of activity of the dairy animal based on the measurements from the at least one accelerometer and also the measure of feeding activity of the dairy animal obtained from the second sensor, and thereby detect the udder disease in the dairy animal based upon the determination.
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Specification