A NEW TELEMETRY SYSTEM FOR MEASURING CORE BODY TEMPERATURE IN LIVESTOCK AND POULTRY

Core body temperature is an important physiological measure of animal thermoregulatory responses to environmental stimuli. A new telemetric body temperature measurement system was evaluated by three independent laboratories for its research application in poultry, swine, beef, and dairy cattle. In the case of poultry and swine, the system employs surgeryfree temperature sensors that are orally administered to allow short-term monitoring. Computational algorithms were developed and used to filter out spurious data. The results indicate that successful employment of the body-temperature measurement method - telemetric or other measurement systems such as rectal or tympanic method, will depend on the specific application. However, due to the cost of the system, the surgeries involved (in some applications), and the need for filtering of data, careful consideration needs to be given to ensure that telemetry is the ideal method for the experiment protocol.