CALF_News_April_May_2018

32 CALF News • April | May 2018 • www.calfnews.net By Patti Wilson Contributing Editor T echnology continues to amaze. While we often think of advancements as smartphones sitting in the palm of our hand, or perhaps driverless cars, medical science continues to surge forward, including in the vast field of veterinary medicine. In the past year, Merck Animal Health has developed a method of diagnosing bovine respiratory disease (BRD), specifically analyzing its severity and differenti- ating it from acidosis. This article was written with the gracious help of Jason Nickell, DVM, Ph.D., DACVPM. We visited about Merck’s new product at last winter’s Cattle Industry Convention. Everyone is familiar with BRD symptoms. The droopy, slobbery, sad appearance is most often found in stressed calves. They are faithfully pulled and treated by dedicated profession- als who, as it has turned out, can be wrong in their diagnosis about 40 percent of the time. What’s the problem? The problem lies in the overlapping symptoms between non-BRD syn- dromes (acidosis/grain overload, for example) and BRD. It’s exacer- bated by the fact that we often put very light cattle on feed, complicat- ing the rumen digestive process and causing grain overload. Treating every animal for BRD not only wastes time and money, but anti- biotics can actually kill beneficial rumen bacteria, harming cattle further. An additional compli- cation in the diagnosis is, as every pen rider knows, the difficulty in reading manure from individual animals in a pen full of cattle. They may be able to see there’s a digestive problem in the pen, but can’t tell who it’s from. Or maybe they see a sick calf that won’t defecate in front of the pen rider in a timely manner. A further problem arises with the predator/prey instinct that dictates they mask their sickness in the presence of people. From calves to old cows, they will perk up if at all possible when confronted with a human. It only complicates diagnos- tics more. Jason Nickell, DVM, demonstrates how Merck Whisper works during the Beef Industry Convention in Phoenix. Breathing Easy Merck Animal Health Develops Diagnostic Technology Finding a solution Merck Animal Health’s research and development team decided to find a solution. Recognizing the need for greater accuracy in diagnostics, they developed the Whisper® Veteri- nary Stethoscope System, which pairs a “smart” stethoscope that records respiratory data with a computer program that uses a series of algorithms to score respiratory distress. A score of one means minimal lung damage or distress; a five indicates a great amount of lung damage. These scores are combined with the animal’s temperature and wirelessly recorded into the computer. Software does the diagnostics and recommends a treatment course. This process also weeds out acidotic calves so that they can receive a rumen buffer and probiotics. The cost of savings on antibiotics alone can be significant. Since cattle are treated most appropriately, retreats are also diminished. High-scoring cattle will be treated with more expensive antibiotic products than those with lower scores, adding to efficiency at the chute. How? The technology is considered a form of artificial intelligence. It’s taken 10 years to develop and over 1 million cattle have contributed to the development of the product. Cattle health has always been the primary objective at Merck’s R&D department. Their smart stethoscope can hear things humans cannot and software’s algorithms don’t recog- nize lung function in other species. Additionally, calves under The Whisper Stethoscope System significantly improves correct BRD diagnosis, reducing antibiotic use and possible retreats.