NSF Grant Number: EHS0325921 PI: Daniel Andresen Institution: Kansas State University Title: An Infr

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NSF Grant Number EHS-0325921PI Daniel Andresen
Institution Kansas State UniversityTitle An
Infrastructure for Veterinary Telemedicine -
Proactive Herd Health Management for Disease
Prevention from Farm to Market
The goal of this project is to research and
develop the technological and sociological
infrastructure to support intelligent, mobile
medical monitoring devices that continuously
assess cattle state of health in concentrated and
distributed herds.
Our approach to the problem has caused great deal
of excitement within the farming and global
community (over 20 articles from The Economist to
Vets-at-work.com), with the second version of our
hardware going into field trials this summer.
We are placing Bluetooth-compliant monitoring
stations near cattle congregation points, such as
feed bunks and watering troughs. These stations
will upload data from nearby environmental
sensors, wireless devices with GPS that are worn
by the animals, and wearable/remote biomedical
sensors. Results from analysis can then be
immediately broadcast to appropriate medical
personnel and producers.
As recently demonstrated by the devastating
impact of "Mad Cow" disease, epidemiology at the
individual farm is vital for our security and
economy. Our system will enable faster detection
and management of animal-borne health threats.
The prototype of our wireless sensors in the
field (left), Engineering Open House visitors
check out the system (top right), our prototype
circuit board (middle), and testing our
project-designed pulse oximeter (bottom right).