Integrated Sensor and Microfluidic System for On-Farm Drug Screening in Precision Livestock Farming

Abstract

Precision livestock farming utilizes technology to monitor the health and wellbeing of animals on an individual level. This allows farmers to provide timely medical interventions in case of illness. However, diagnosing diseases accurately and quickly to enable targeted treatment remains a challenge, especially in remote farm settings. This paper proposes an integrated sensor and microfluidic system to enable rapid on-farm screening for livestock diseases. The system consists of wearable sensors that continuously monitor animal vitals and behaviors. It also contains a microfluidic chip that can analyze blood samples on-site for biomarkers. Data analytics and machine learning algorithms are developed to detect anomalies in the multivariate sensor data which trigger the biomarker analysis for early disease diagnosis. This paper presents the end-to-end system design, manufacturing protocols for the sensor and the microfluidic chip as well as statistical data analysis techniques. The system is validated by testing it on a small sheep farm. Results indicate that it can rapidly and reliably detect two common infectious diseases in sheep with over 90% accuracy. The proposed system demonstrates the potential of integrating sensors and microfluidics for early disease diagnosis in precision livestock farms. It can significantly improve productivity by enabling prompt treatment of sick animals.