Public Funding for Verso Biosense R&D Limited

"Suboptimal health and welfare within the beef cattle industry is significant and costs the livestock industry millions of pounds each year. This proposal represents a 'One Health' cross-over project which seeks to translate a sensor technology from human health into the animal health sector. VivoPlex is developing an innovative sensing device that wirelessly measures dissolved oxygen (DO), pH and temperature within the human uterus, and this proposal is looking to translate this into animal health. Providing accurate information, collected automatically and presented in clear, easy to use forms, has been shown to encourage more timely farm management activity, allowing vets and their farm clients to seek herd health practices that prevent disease and loss of productivity, rather than therapeutic treatment of disease. The project team, VivoPlex and RAFT Solutions, specialists in cattle health and sustainable livestock production aim to adapt VivoPlex technology to provide solutions to the two primary problems encountered in the beef production sector: 1\. Reduction of antimicrobial usage by use of precision farming techniques in diagnosis of bovine respiratory disease (BRD); and 2\. Increasing productivity & managing greenhouse gas (GHG) impacts through optimisation of the rumen microbiome in the feeding challenge represented by the balance between maximising energy intake versus rumen health. VivoPlex and RAFT, would therefore like to explore the feasibility of designing a beef cattle sensor that continuously monitors the environment of the rumen in real-time. It is envisaged that the sensor will be administered orally via commercially available Bolus guns. The product will focus on rumen fermentation by monitoring all three critical parameters, DO, pH and temperature. There are no multi-parameter sensing devices that provide DO data within the livestock market. The potential to monitor DO within the rumen, in addition to pH and temperature, could lead to optimising the fermentation process. This will allow livestock farmers to manage feed to provide the maximum daily weight gain but controlling the risk of metabolic diseases such as rumen acidosis and liver abscessation associated with bacteraemia consequent to depressed rumen pH."