Bovine respiratory disease (BRD) is one of the most common and costly diseases in the beef industry, costing millions of dollars in losses and significantly impacting the industry’s economic stability.
Merck Animal Health created two new tools to diagnose BRD quicker to reduce death loss, reduce antibiotic use and add to your bottom line. At a recent beef media event in Amarillo, TX, Merck introduced the SenseHub Feedlot technology and Whisper On Arrival tools, designed to detect BRD up to four days earlier.
“First and foremost, we have to remember that we’re dealing with an animal that is hard-wired to conceal disease,” said Dr. Jason Nickell, director of insights and outcomes at Merck Animal Health. “So, the reality is that by the time this animal is actually allowing the human to see that it was sick, it’s been sick for several days.”
Nickell said the current system of detecting BRD by human observation is inherently flawed. When the animal is pulled, Nickell noted people are applying antibiotics during an inopportune time frame, lowering the chances of their effectiveness when treating the animal. Or, the animal has the appearance of BRD symptoms but does not actually have BRD. On the other side, some animals have BRD but go undiagnosed because they are designed to conceal signs of illness.
SenseHub Feedlot is an ear tag that simultaneously senses the animal’s temperature and activity and utilizes artificial intelligence to tell the operator “if the animal is different than what it has been in the past and also different than the group. So, finding outliers in the population,” Nickell said.
The ear tag is placed in a manner to allow it to project an infrared beam down the ear canal to measure temperature and movement. The information is sent from the animal via an antenna to the base station several times a day, where it is uploaded to a cloud platform and emailed to the operator every morning with the animal’s ID number and location if it detects the possible presence of BRD.
The ear tag then illuminates via a flashing green light, making it easier to locate the animal. Nickell said the retention on the animal is 99%, and the tag can transmit up to 2 miles away depending on the type of antenna.
The veterinarians at Merck conducted a study of approximately 2,500 heifers at a feedlot in central Oklahoma over 225 days, which found that animals were detected four days earlier with SenseHub Feedlot compared to pen riders, and more animals lived to harvest (88% with the use of SenseHub versus 84% with pen riders). The increase in animals making it to harvest resulted in an increase of 40 pounds to the live weight and an added 25 lbs. to the hot carcass weight.
“Ultimately, at the end of the day, we had more animals stay in the system with the SenseHub group compared to the pen riders, and ultimately what we are trying to do is have more animals,” Nickell said.
He added that this is not meant as a replacement for pen riders, but it allows them to go into pens less, thus saving on labor.
The SenseHub Feedlot tag is reusable and has a life span of 2.5 to three years, so it can also be used in a backgrounding or stocker situation. The tag cost is $29, and there is a $5 reactivation fee after applying it to a new animal. There is no monthly monitoring fee, and the tag can work offline for up to 24 hours.
However, Nickell noted that the cost per animal per reuse makes the initial price of the tag more economical, especially when you balance it out with a reduced amount of animals dying due to BRD and extra weight at harvest.
Kirkland Feedyard
The Kirkland Feedyard is a custom cattle feeding operation located just outside Vega, TX. Robby Kirkland is the manager and co-owner of the yard with his father, Perry. The feedlot was founded in 1983 with 600 head, and today, the operation has grown to 25,000 head. Kirkland said about 90% of the cattle are from customers, and they range from sale barn cattle to cattle coming off pasture from 14 states, with some customers retaining ownership through the backgrounding stage.
The Kirklands built lasting relationships with their customers, and what is best for their customers is always at the forefront of their minds, Kirkland said. So, Kirkland Feedyard partnered with Merck Animal Health to use the SenseHub Feedlot tags. They have used the tags for eight months on about 4,000 head, and Kirkland is pleased with the results.
“Our genetics are better, our vaccines are better, antibiotics are better, but our health doesn’t get any better,” Kirkland said when talking about SenseHub. “And so this is something that, along with the challenges we have with labor today, we just believe this is where we’re heading in the future.”
Kirkland said they talked with the pen riders before the tags arrived at the yard and explained it is a tool. The yard still has traditional processes, including vaccinating cattle when they arrive, but he hopes SenseHub will assist in lowering antibiotic use and feedyard deaths.
Kirkland said they have been able to lower death loss by 3-4% and that the feedyard’s “pull to dead ratio” used to be 8 pulled to 1 dead. With the use of the tags, the ratio is now 13 pulled to 1 dead.
“What we have to do is believe in the technology. We’re seeing that it’s saving more cattle. What it’s doing is pulling cattle days earlier than the human eye probably would,” Kirkland said.
Whisper On Arrival
Whisper On Arrival is another tool to help diagnose which animals are infected with BRD or may become infected. Whisper On Arrival consists of a sound collection device that measures each animal’s lung and heart sounds for eight seconds while the animal is in the chute. Based on an algorithm, the device transmits a simple “treat” or “do not treat” outcome to a tablet or computer. The results identify which cattle are likely to respond to antimicrobial therapy for BRD and which can remain untreated.
[inline_image file=”60109583154324cb7578eba4084c27f5.jpg” caption=”Dr. David Sjeklocha, Merck technical services veterinarian, demonstrates using Whisper On Arrival.”]
According to Nickell, when animals come into the feedlot, producers generally know the risk factors with BRD and whether the lot that is arriving presents any red flags for the disease. Should those red flags come up, producers will treat the entire lot on a metaphylaxis basis, but not every animal needs it or benefits from treatment.
Whisper On Arrival is designed to reduce the risk of animals contracting BRD while being judicious about antibiotic use.
Comparing it to a stress test for humans, Nickell said the tool is leveraging the stress of the animal arriving at the feedlot, capturing the heart information, body temperature and weight and using artificial intelligence to reduce the metaphylaxis cost.
“So we not only want to be accurate in our prediction and reduce antibiotic use, but we also do not want to see a loss of health performance compared to traditional metaphylaxis,” Nickell said.
Nickell stated Merck observed roughly a 40% reduction in medical access usage. He said in what they call low-risk animals—animals that are preconditioned—the research using Whisper On Arrival showed that 20% are at risk of developing BRD. Nickell noted that while it may increase the use of antibiotics, it impacts overall health outcomes. — Charles Wallace, WLJ editor
