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IET Wireless Sensor Systems

Review Article

Cattle health monitoring system using ISSN 2043-6386

Received on 12th May 2017
Revised 15th March 2018
wireless sensor network: a survey from Accepted on 16th March 2018
E-First on 24th May 2018
innovation perspective doi: 10.1049/iet-wss.2017.0060
www.ietdl.org

Bhisham Sharma1 , Deepika Koundal1

1Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Chitkara University Institute of Engineering and Technology, Chitkara University, India
E-mail: [email protected]

Abstract: Health monitoring of dairy cattle plays a vital role for increasing the dairy products supply worldwide. Nowadays
farmers are showing less interest in dairy sector as animals are suffering from various ailing health issues, unpredictable killing
diseases, and advanced breeding costs. Therefore, it is necessary for farmers to adopt efficient technical methods for cattle
health monitoring to increase the milk production supply. This study documented various wireless sensor network (WSN)-based
automatic health monitoring systems for monitoring various diseases of dairy cattle. The main objective of WSN-based
intelligent monitoring systems in farm automation is to monitor the health of dairy cattle on regular basis. This monitoring system
needs to be installed in local and remote locations of farms that will assist the concerned farmers in monitoring their cattle
activities from diverse locations for the whole day. All collected factors from the automated system will be stored in a database.
Subsequently, with the help of farm automation, farmers can retrieve information for the execution of correct farm control
strategies. Moreover, WSN is low-cost technology which is specific for the identification of diseases in dairy animals. This
revolution in advanced technological farm automation will aid in improving the productivity rate with the reduction of human
intervention. This review study concludes all cattle monitoring systems along with various issues and challenges.

1 Introduction information amount to enhance productivity rate, the betterment of

cattle health. It is quite reasonable to accept major aspects of farm
A major portion of dairy farms contributes to betterment automation scheme such as tracking animals, assessing
economies of developing countries including India. Production of conformation in animal's body, monitor efficient physiological
dairy products is wholesome for food industry worldwide. India, factors. Information from sensors, knowledge databases, and
one of the largest populated countries, has the highest milk mathematical models ensures the maximum information potential.
production every year [1]. Milk is considered to be the major However, continuous monitoring requires more time and
source of income over several decades among all available dairy manpower of farmers [5]. Continuous visual observation by
products. The market size of dairy products especially of milk in farmers cannot be fully accurate as there are emerging various
India is approximately US$47.6 billion (Rs. 2000 billion). A large health issues of animals that are difficult to prevent [6]. Therefore,
number of milk production plants are being installed in many an intelligent approach for monitoring of cattle health needs to be
places. According to that, India's milk production has almost developed to help rural people. As a result, latest information
trebled in last 40 years, increasing from 21 million tons in 1968 to technologies are combined with precision livestock farming
108 million tons in 2008–2009, annually. According to Animal approaches that are used to process behaviour and monitor
Husbandry Department, Fisheries, and Dairying, Agriculture biological responses of animals. In literature, the given cattle health
Ministry of India in 2014–2015, about 146.3 million tons of milk monitoring techniques generally include processing algorithms,
production has been seen [2]. Especially, value-added milk monitoring tools and methodologies (distributed infrastructure
production demand such as Indian yogurt, cheese, and probiotic software) that help animal's owners to pre-predict diseases for
drinks are increasing at a double-digit rate. It has been observed which outbreak results [6]. These techniques can analyse the health
that in recent trends to meet the recent demands of dairy products, of every cattle and provide health details to the owner as well as to
there is a critical need to become self-efficient in the production of the doctors at the same time. Therefore, electronic livestock
milk products. The frequent occurring killing diseases in cattle farming is one of the emerging areas which are considered as the
such as foot and mouth disease (FMD) hurdles the condition of biggest development. The presented paper emphasised on health
farmers which directly impact national economies of many monitoring of animals to prevent them from deadly diseases such
developing countries [3, 4]. There are other epidemic outbreaks in as ketosis, mastitis, milk ferry through WSNs.
domestic animals such as bovine mastitis, anthrax, contagious This paper is organised as follows: Section 2 discusses various
bovine ablution, and black quarter (black hg) which also prevails cattle health events and Section 3 has presented various
basil FMD. In order to tackle these diseases, it is necessary to technologies to handle those events. Section 4 presented the
implement farm scientific technology for the monitoring of dairy mapping of diseases to various sensors. Section 5 reviews the
animal health to reduce the production costs. The function of related work of cattle health monitoring. Section 6 shows the
sensors is to gather information about diseases and to reduce long- various research issues and challenges, whereas Section 7
term animal dairy healthcare costs. Farm automation using WSN concludes the conclusion.
determines the body temperature that plays an important role in the
detection of ill health of animals. Directional antennas rely on
transducers to measure direct sudden body temperature change 2 Cattle health events
within animal's body. Along with working of WSN, this paper Cattle health is of great significance in food production due to
discusses the wireless animal body temp-monitoring system that owner concerns for food quality and safety. Getting better-farmed
advances enabling computing technology to approximate cattle's welfare certainly affects disease resistance and pathology.
continuous health data of animals. Related physiological From previous studies, it has been found that the physiological and
measurements of animals, infrastructure cost help in advancing behavioural responses of farmed cattle's has provided consistent

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information about health statuses such as duration of grazing parasites often lead to the light weaning weights and reduced the
period which is a crucial behavioural factor (such as the animals' milk production. Fascioloides magna and Fasciola hepatica disturb
head movement or movement velocity) to ascertain the adequacy the liver functionality and lead to weight loss. External parasites
of offered food that influenced the health welfare and milk like ticks and flies are also one of the causes which deteriorate the
production. Any noteworthy variation in duration of grazing period cattle health and their performance.
disclosed the malfunctioning that entailed the farmer's
consideration. Monitoring the behaviour of dairy cattle is useful to 2.6 Transition/periparturient period
assess their health status, welfare, and comfort at the farm level.
Certainly, changes in behaviour are clear indicators of dairy The major concern for veterinarians is to maintain good health of
animal's health and welfare problems. Therefore, these can be used dairy animals during the periparturient/transition period. The
as input to an early warning system. The time spent by the animals transition period is described as the time duration from 3 weeks
lying or feeding plays an important role in terms of milk prior to parturition through 3 weeks after parturition [13]. The
production. Thus, knowing their position is an important factor for duration of periparturient of dairy animals is the time frame near
monitoring and controlling their behavioural patterns and activities parturition. During production cycle of cattle's, parturition is a
to obtain information for their health status and productivity [6]. critical time in which they are at extreme risk for manifesting
Whether the diseases occur due to bioterrorism or naturally, they production diseases. Insufficient nutrients given to the transition
pose a serious threat to the dairy cattle's health. The most highly animals may result in reduced production potential and increased
impacting condition which affects the animal health is abortion the costs for treatment. The nutritional diet should be fed during
followed by internal parasites, footrot or lameness [7]. Farming this time to ensure successful reproduction and maximise
industry gives significant income to the Indian nation but animals productivity.
are mostly affected by FMD, anthrax, black-quarter (black-leg),
contagious bovine abortion and bovine mastitis [8]. Form this 2.7 Ketosis
study, it has been noticed that the diseases have a high negative
impact on the cattle health and farmer's profitability. Additionally, It is associated with fatty liver. Animals developing ketosis have
the environmental conditions such as drought, heat or toxins from lower milk production, lower gluconeogenic capacity and reduced
plants may create a problem. Thus, various studies have been feed intake with high risk of developing infectious and other
focused on the deployment of systems for health monitoring that metabolic diseases. It is categorised by partial anorexia and
should be able to identify various behavioural parameters and depression. Rarely, it emerges in buffalos in late gestation.
transformation into corresponding behavioural modes (standing, Additionally, with the loss of appetence in coordination and
walking, lying down and grazing). Such systems could assist the abnormal gait symptoms of nervous dysfunction as well as
owner to increase milk production and animal welfare. bawling, pica, anomalous licking and hostility are periodically
observed [14].
2.1 Body temperature
2.8 Metabolic disease
Animal stress is normally assessed by measuring the body
temperature. Veterinarians commonly measured the rectal These diseases usually spread with the rise of milk production as
temperatures for the detection and diagnosis of febrile disease for well as herds turn into a bigger size. Generally, subclinical disease
many years [8]. The temperature has been measured at different frequency is more widespread than clinical mastitis. Often it is
anatomical positions of cattle such as vagina, udder (milk), ear related to noteworthy financial losses that include reduced
(tympanic) and reticulum rectum. The normal temperature of reproductive performance, impaired milk production, culling losses
animal is known to be 38.6°C. The temperature of body must be and increased clinical diseases risks [15, 16].
maintained within limits to sustain its physiological processes.
From literature, it has been found that the range of normal 2.9 Mastitis
temperature is 37.8–40.0°C [8]. This is the most common leading endemic disease in which breast
tissues in the mammary gland of dairy cattle are getting swollen. It
2.2 Footrot is an inflammation of the mammary gland. It gives an immune
This disease is due to the pathogen presented in soil that response to a bacterial attack by several bacterial sources which
contaminates the tissues of hoof when surroundings are muddy and may be the result of mechanical, thermal or chemical injury to the
wet [9]. udder [10, 17].

2.3 Wasting diseases 2.10 Lameness

Johne's disease and tuberculosis are due to the bacteria's of same This is an unusual movement during locomotion related to either
species (Mycobacterium) which reduces the performance of cattle leg or foot [18].
[10].
2.11 Milk fever
2.4 Production diseases It is also known as metabolic disease, parturient paresis or
The production diseases include nutritional and metabolic diseases postparturient hypocalcaemia. It is represented by lower blood
as well as genetic and infectious diseases including hanging calcium level [19]. Hypocalcaemia reduced the level of blood
placenta. The economic loss to the cattle welfare concern and dairy calcium which lessens the productive longevity and reduced the
industry is mostly due to the production diseases. Abortion yield.
happens due to various factors such as bovine viral diarrhoea
(BVD) on foetus during the gestation period [11]. Weak calves, 2.12 Diarrhoea
ovarian cysts, foetal mummification and premature births are due This disease is spread by Pestivirus. It leads to weakness, loss of
to foetal infection with BVD virus. During gestation, heat stress salt and water, in appetence, death and thinning if not diagnosed
and listeriosis exposure to toxins from forbs are also the conditions early and properly [20].
that may cause abortions.
2.13 Pneumonia
2.5 Parasites
It is a multifactorial disease that causes symptoms such as
Two kinds of parasites that lead to performance losses in cattle and depression, fever, eye discharge, stiff gait, in appetence, serous
their calves are internal and external parasites [12]. Internal

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sensor type, sensor location, measurements type and the alerts
given by the sensor for the occurrence of an event [25–28, 30]. In
earlier days, the health of cattle has been monitored visually by
veterinarians. As the demand for dairy products is growing day by
day, it is vital for farmers to have effective means for cattle
monitoring. Presently, WSNs have been employed to monitor vital
factors of cattle such as heart rate, respiration, and temperature
which are considered as early signs of diseases [31–38]. This
section surveyed the impact of diseases and their measurable
indicators for the detection of diseases with the help of sensors.
Fig. 1 Zigbee-based animal health monitoring system Fig. 2 shows different areas for monitoring dairy cattle health.
nasal and cold which weakens the immune system of the cattle (i) The temperature of cattle: The number of sensors has been
[18]. considered for measuring core body temperature within a bolus and
through anus or ear. As ear canal is adjacent to the ear tag to
3 Technologies measure core body temperature, it is the least invasive and most
To support this, sensor-based automated health monitoring is convenient method. For quantifying body temperature of cattle,
necessary to follow individual animal movement as well as to one of the sensor based devices used is FeverTag that is a tympanic
monitor the health conditions. Since the cost of digital storage and thermometer device. It is fastened with a probe to the ear and
communication decreases and their availability increases, located in the lower ear canal and whenever the temperature is
utilisation of these technologies is becoming very popular above 103.6°F it flashes an indicator [38]. Other sensor-based
nowadays [21]. It is now become easy to monitor the conditions of device is CorTemp bolus which is employed to quantify core body
an individual animal in detail that has so far been difficult. Mobile temperature [33].
WSNs make continuous welfare monitoring easy with higher (ii) Environmental humidity sensor: Humidity strongly weakens
robustness as compared to manual observation. The global the strength of signals causing loss of data while communicating
positioning system (GPS) enabled collars are able to measure the between wireless components. The level of humidity obtained on
length of grazing period of cattle to help farmers for accurate the farm can be utilised to consider the dissipation of signal
decision making. However, real-time communication has several strength [21]. Furthermore, the recorded data of temperature
issues, particularly, welfare threatening conditions that need an provides a baseline for the temperature of cattle's during the whole
appropriate warning at the rate of which deterioration occurrence day [39, 40].
and battery conservation. From literature, it has been found that for (iii) Heart rate: CorTemp bolus has also been used to quantify
tracking cattle activity, GPS-enabled collars have been successfully heart rate with temperature of the body. This device is used to
used by several researchers [22, 23]. locate the commencing of each pulse using a microphone to
Sensor networks consist of several tiny low price devices that ascertain and convert the time between consecutive pulses into a
are logically self-organised ad hoc systems. The sensor network pulse rate [33]. Polar heart belt is also used to monitor heart rate,
has been employed for monitoring the health parameters of cattle's which attained heart vector of the animal using electrodes [41].
to gather and convey information to other nodes. The sensed data (iv) Respiration: Thermistor is used to quantify the respiration of
from the node is conveyed in multi-hop manner hop by hop to the cattle affixed to a nose stud in the nostril of animal [31, 32, 42].
sink. WSNs can be deployed as static or mobile. Static WSNs are The thermistor's temperature rises relating to the ambient
deployed to measure buffalo movement and soil moisture. Mobile temperature as the cattle exhales. The respiration rate can be
WSNs are deployed on each animal to monitor their temperature, determined by computing the number of times/minute as the
health, and behaviour. temperature falls and rises [7].
Nowadays, inexpensive ear-tags are widely used instead of (v) Locations of tracking unit: Triangulation is one of the most
active leg-tags/active collars. Passive tags are generally used to common methods, which is used to track the remote systems. It is
identify cattle for tracking and tracing instead of sensing. Though, the method of ascertaining the location of a point by quantifying
passive radio frequency identification (RFID) sensors are used for the time difference of signal arrival to three different receivers.
monitoring the cattle, whereas active RFID sensors are used for Presently, global positioning systems (GPS) are used to determine
longer-range tracking [24]. Early and accurate detection of cattle the position based on information from multiple satellites [37].
diseases not only reduces the cost of unnecessary treatment as well (vi) Reflective pulse oximeter: Abnormal heart rate or low level of
as prevents the production losses. Rectal temperature is generally haemoglobin may be early symptoms of bovine illness. These
used to approximate core body temperature as it is difficult to vitals are generally monitored in humans with a transmissive pulse
obtain for proper cattle monitoring. The method of manual oximeter through the finger. However, in cattle, these vitals are
collection of rectal temperatures may lead to stress in animals that measured by transmissive pulse oximeter through ear [38].
can alter the temperatures. Therefore, a reliable method is required (vii) Solar panel: For remote WSN, the endpoints can be surplus of
that can provide a more accurate measure with no manual a sustainable energy source as the nodes may not be accessible
intervention. regularly [43]. Thus, entails those nodes that incorporate battery
supply to maintain a level of charge for circuitry or a method of
4 Diseases mapped to sensors battery recharge to avoid unwanted interference for the extensive
operating period. For recharging of batteries, solar panels have
In the above section, several cattle diseases and their effect on been used over piezo-electric energy generation as solar power
cattle's behaviour through symptoms and clinical signs are would give the predictable quantity of power for each cattle
discussed. After considering those diseases, in this section, the throughout the day [32]. Solar power has been determined as the
conditions are mapped to the related sensors for analysing their only possible source of sustainable energy for various access
behavioural changes and health, which cattle reveal in that points.
particular disease [25–28]. Various types of sensors are available
(viii) XBee: The XBee device is a wireless transceiver which is
for different kind of applications. The sensors which are most
generally used as it works with a maximum operating radius of two
widely employed are Microphone, Temperature sensor and
miles with a maximum transmitting power of 67 mW. XBees are
Accelerometer (Pedometer) [29]. Fig. 1 illustrates a general
physically small, slightly larger than a quarter and fit well within
framework of cattle health monitoring system which consists of
the space of an ear tag. It has been decided that all the data
accelerometer module, humidity, temperature, and electrode
obtained from WSN would be communicated back to a central
module.
location through a wireless network for the reduction of impact on
The wireless system is generally categorised on the basis of
the buffalos' normal activities [31, 38, 44].
technique, data, algorithms, and their performance. It consists of

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and farm environmental information are collected through WSNs
5 Related work installed in the farm and visual information about the farm is
acquired through closed-circuit television (CCTV). All this
In literature, various studies on physiological and behavioural environmental and image information about the farm assisted the
responses of cattle have been reported. These studies provide user to control the farm facility from outside the farm.
reliable information about welfare and health status such as grazing Additionally, SMS notice service should be given to the users when
duration which is a vital behavioural characteristic for the owner to the unsafe condition has taken place [52, 53].
know the adequacy of food provided to cattle that affects their In [54], WSN and CCTV have been introduced that is installed
production and welfare. According to the literature, the number of on farms to gather ecological and image information to facilitate
health monitoring systems for cattle has been reported. These farmers for cattle monitoring via the Web outside the farm and for
systems give the idea for the detection of various health-related controlling the farm facilities in remote locations. Jegadeesan et al.
parameters of cattle. With the help of these systems, it becomes introduced a WSN technology in which sensor nodes are deployed
very easy to detect various diseases such as rumination, for computation and communication in various application
temperature, humidity and heart rate as well as nearby temperature. environments [55]. This WSN technology resulted in high safety,
WSNs have attracted a great attention from technological and human quality and high productivity of life through its various
scientific research groups. The monitoring system utilising WSN applications [55].
will be useful to the farmers, ranchers, and pastoralists to observe Ipema et al. performed various experiments in which
their cattle. This can be carried out remotely employing wirelessly temperature sensor equipped into a bolus and located in the rumen
through nodes for giving alerts for any type of abnormalities such of the animal. The results demonstrated that the capsule-based
as critical levels of body temperature and early signs of illness. wireless technology performed well in cattle. In experiments, the
For the consideration of various animal welfare issues, several mote in the rumen conveyed the data to the mote fastened to the
external sensors such as neck collar, ankle ribbon, accelerometer, front leg of the cattle to the base station [56]. The evaluation of
pedometer, and vibration sensor have been developed [45]. cattle welfare has been carried out by wireless monitoring. This
Automated tools are used for an early detection of metabolic enabled the producer to make accurate decisions based on real-time
disorders in cattle's. Tags or collars are placed on the neck of cattle management. Cai et al. introduced a WSN-based remote query
which provided information to the user [32]. The microphone is ammonia sensor to trace high and low concentrations of ammonia
incorporated in a plastic gadget, which is attached to the left side [56]. Simultaneously, heating and ventilation must be minimised to
dorsally on the head collar. The sounds are analysed through a save energy by keeping the temperature at sufficient level.
complex algorithm inside the tag. Based on validation trials from Cugnasca et al. estimated the usefulness and capability of WSN for
the developer, the tag is claimed to detect rumen activity with 97% monitoring environmental variables in animal houses. The nodes
of accuracy. WSNs have been used by several researchers in the were moved through the animal house to reveal various profiles of
form of sensory collars that are mounted to the neck to monitor the luminosity, humidity, and temperature [57]. Darr and Zhao
health of animals [46, 47]. One remarkable system is ‘ZebraNet’ presented a wireless-based data acquisition system to monitor
which is generally used for monitoring [46]. The devices equipped temperature differences in swine barns [58]. Seasonal and
on zebra transmit all measurements (GPS position) to all other environmental changes may influence haematological values in
devices within range. Various static and mobile nodes have been domestic animals. Another foremost issue that worsens the
deployed. The static sensors quantify the moisture of soil, whereas performance of cattle is the thermal environment, especially in
mobile sensors study the behaviour of animals. This method is not high genetic value. The variation in environmental variables such
scalable due to limited storage space on the device; also, the as ambient temperature, relative humidity, wind, and rainfall is
maintenance cost is also high as the retrieval of measurements recognised as the potential hazards in livestock growth and
required manual intervention. Handcock et al. [48] presented a production. Exposure of animals to the hot environment could
satellite, WSN and GPS collars-based animal behaviour monitoring stimulate thermoregulatory mechanisms and produces a reduction
system with its environmental impact. They integrated the sensed in the rates of metabolism, feed intake and productivity [59]. The
satellite images and ground-based sensors for the realisation of the cattle must be in thermal equilibrium with its environment
animal landscape interactions. including air temperature, radiation, humidity and air movement to
Global positioning systems (GPS) are the most widespread maintain homeothermy [60]. Heat stress appears when there is any
systems which are used to estimate the spatial and temporal pattern of conditions that cause an effective temperature to be
distribution of herds and are deployed in outdoor environments higher than the animal's ‘thermoneutral’ zone. Previous studies
[49]. Offline GPS systems are generally used to determine the recommended that temperature-humidity index (THI) can be used
spatial distribution of cattle [50]. The fusion of sensors is carried as a sign of thermal climatic conditions and to measure stress
out to examine several behavioural modes using spatial distribution degree in cattle [61].
of dairy cattle [47]. Recurrent connection loss and high energy Nadimi et al. introduced the on-line monitoring system for
consumption with the satellites in the fields that are enclosed by animals using ZigBee based WSNs. The authors have employed
obstacles such as trees are the foremost shortcomings of GPS- the 2.4-GHz ZigBee-based WSN in a single-hop network to
based systems. Thus, GPS is less reliable and practical for long- quantify head movements of a herd of dairy animal [6, 29]. The
term behaviour registration. Further, the use of offline data loggers issue of animal's presence and their pasture time using WSNs has
and accelerometers has been investigated by attaching them to the been handled [6, 29]. To control the superiority of indoor
hooves of dairy cattle [51]. The animal behaviour is further environment is vital for cattle welfare and health as it directly
classified as stationary or moving. influenced the productivity and its quality. Proper ventilation in the
Mayer et al. have reported that the retrieval of real-time data stables should be maintained so that long-term perilous exposure to
from animal mounted WSNs devices is employed via global ammonia which can lead to stress, health deterioration, and
system for mobile (GSM) infrastructure. GSM-enabled collars are productivity reduction can be avoided. Huircan et al. [62]
too expensive apart from battery life concerns while monitoring introduced cattle monitoring system based on Zigbee with the
large numbers of animals [21]. They formed a WSN platform for localisation scheme in WSN.
monitoring behaviour and health of the animal. In this, cattle are Currently, RFID device technology is employed in various
equipped with both external and internal sensors with the help of agricultural fields to gain transparency of distribution routes and
motes to monitor their intra-rumenal activity [21]. The authors high productivity from the cultivation environment to distribution
have introduced the system that is composed of two parts. The first logistics and production management [24]. RFID/WSN technology
part of the system is used to quantify the health parameters of in the livestock industry is used to monitor characteristics of each
animals in the grazing land. The second part of the system is used animal, their environment and to track breeding history. WSN-
to measure health parameters of animals in the farm. Moreover, it based monitoring of animal health using RFID has also developed
has been used to manage the environment of the farm remotely in [63]. Recently, the development of RFID has opened a new scope
order to increase the production from the farm animals. External for real-time body temperature monitoring in human as well as

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been evaluated by several authors [51, 70]. Online monitoring
system has been developed by several authors, which has a
capability of real-time monitoring and classification of animal
behaviour [47, 50, 51]. The systems were based on the deployment
of WSNs to measure certain behavioural parameters such as pH of
the stomach, head movements, and spatial distribution and transmit
them over a wireless network to a central base station. Ipema et al.
tested a 434-MHz WSN in a single-hop network to quantify the pH
of the stomach of a dairy animal [28]. The online monitoring
system used to determine the inactive or active status of dairy
animals by monitoring their head movements. Active status
considered as dynamic movements such as walking or grazing.
Animals which are not showing dynamic activities are considered
as inactive such as standing or lying down.
Several authors have reported a high loss of data packets over
the WSNs [6, 28, 29]. Moreover, frequent energy supplies are
Fig. 2 Areas to monitor dairy cattle required in WSN because modern network structures and
communication protocols are not used resulting in high-energy
livestock animals. RFID is a wireless system that sends out the consumption WSNs. In addition, the health status of WSNs is not
identification of an object in form of a distinctive sequence of observed, therefore the performance and network congestion of
numbers using radio waves. Several researchers have used wireless node is not evaluated. Hence, the wireless node could not be
RFID technology to automatically determine the physiological and substituted in the case of breakdown. The network reliability and
behavioural activity for monitoring the health condition of each reception rate of data transmission are two foremost issues that
animal [46, 64]. The body temperature is an excellent indicator of restrict the WSN application in monitoring animal behaviour, food
animal's general health for quantifying stress of animals [59], production and biological systems [74]. To handle above issues,
shearing effect, warning for illness and diseases [65]. Rectal 2.4-GHz ZigBee-based mobile ad hoc WSN is designed using
temperature also changes according to different ages in animals multi-hop mesh networking, relay nodes, and handshaking
[66]. The shifts in body temperature are useful not only for communication protocol in which low-energy consumption, a high
identifying an animal experiencing disease events [67] but also rate of data packet reception and reliable communication have been
identifying an animal with particular physiological conditions like achieved.
oestrus state, approaching parturition [68]. The rectal temperature Schwager et al. classified the behaviour of dairy animals into
(RT) is used to show the body's peripheral temperature. RT is used active and inactive by k-means classifier [72]. One of the common
almost exclusively because it is relatively simple, durable, and diseases seen in cattle is bovine respiratory disease whose signs are
inexpensive equipment. Mercury bulb (MB) thermometer can be fever, nasal discharge, and rapid breathing. Another disease is
used to measure RT with a reasonable degree of accuracy. Leptospirosis whose signs are fever, bloody urine, and anaemia.
Veterinarians and dairy farmers used the rectal temperatures for the Also, pregnant buffalos may get aborted. In such cases, monitoring
detection and management of febrile situations and variations in of body temperature becomes very important. Several new
several animal's states (oestrus, the onset of calving and heat stress) technologies have been presented for measuring the body
[69]. However, the variation in body temperature requires frequent temperature of cattle at various locations including rectum,
sampling and thus obtaining data in a continuous manner at the reticulum-rumen, ear, milk, and skin. Thermocouples determine the
farm is time consuming, labour intensive as well as costly. temperature by producing a small voltage signal proportional to the
Therefore, there is a need for solutions that can offer automatic temperature variance between the junctions of the two divergent
acquisition of this parameter [70]. Thus, deployment of a metals. First junction (the hot junction) is classically encased in a
monitoring system is necessary for quantification of behavioural sensor probe at the point of measurement; the second junction (the
parameters and their transformation to corresponding behavioural cold junction) is linked to the measuring instrument. Thermistors,
modes. which are distant extra correct and stable than thermocouples, are
Behavioural parameters are like cattle's head movement or semiconductors made from metal oxides that are pushed into a
spatial distribution and behavioural modes such as lying down, small wafer, bead, disk, or another shape. The thermistors sense
grazing, walking and standing [6, 47, 50, 71, 72]. Such type of temperature by connected to their electrical resistance; when
monitoring system could aid farmer in managing their farm in located inside a small data recorder, they are supreme for separate
order to increase cattle production and welfare [71]. The operations such as thermal mapping. As compared to the previous
behavioural parameters of cattle can be quantified by various kinds types of sensors that require straight contact with the tissue to get
of sensors and strategies. Several researchers have suggested the temperature measurements, infrared (IR) technology does not
classification tree, k-means classifier and multiple-model adaptive require any contact with the animal, permitting remote measuring.
estimation approaches to performing data processing [47, 50, 71, From previous years, it has been observed that technology for
72]. These approaches have been used for measurement and thermal-based temperature measurement has been designed
transmission of behavioural parameters as well as processing of significantly. Various companies are today able to produce diverse
data and their transformation to corresponding behavioural mode. devices for numerously varied usages of temperature
Rumination is one of the significant parameters which can be measurements, extending from industrial to medical and veterinary
considered in monitoring buffalo's health. Rumination duration is issues. To quantify temperature of animals, two different categories
mainly decided by the amount of feed ingested together with the of IR systems are commercially available, IR thermometers and
ration composition mainly fibre content and particle size. thermal cameras [47, 72]. Brown-Brandt et al. introduced the
Excessive starch and easily fermented carbohydrates cause a comparative analysis of telemetry system for core body
reduction in chewing activity. As a result, the saliva production temperature measurements in beef cattle, poultry, dairy cattle and
decreases and creates metabolic disturbances that deteriorate the swine. The system is based on the overall accuracy of the system,
buffalo health and production. Prolonged daily rumination resulted specified resolution of temperature transmitters and flexibility of
in higher milk yield. A drop in rumination is a clear indication of taking measurements on both free-roaming and housed animals.
health problems which can affect milk production. Many sensors Transmitters are based on size, transmitting distance and battery
have been developed to monitor rumination. Umstatter et al. life [75].
equipped the offline pitch-roll sensors around the necks of cattle Another method to retrieve data from animal mounted devices
for their monitoring [50]. Sallvik et al. introduced radio frequency employed an existing global system for mobile (GSM)
synchronisation units (RFSU) with video processing techniques infrastructure facilitated real-time communication [46].
[73]. The animal behaviour in indoor environments (i.e. barns) has Nevertheless, battery life issue is there, this method became too

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Table 1 Health monitoring systems for cattle
Reference System Parameters detected Sensors
[31] ZigBee-based animal health rumination, body temperature, and heart rate IEEE802.15.4 and IEEE1451.2 standards-based
monitoring system with surrounding temperature and humidity for sensor module, ZigBee device and PIC18F4550
analysing the stress level microcontroller
[33] cattle-worn system core body temperature, heart rate, GPS telemonitoring system utilizing wearable technology
location, ambient temperature and humidity
and motion
[45] sensor technology dairy farms sensors and embedded system
[83] cattle health monitoring humidity, temperature, heart beat, respiration Arduino UNO, sensors, IoT
system and rumination sensors
[84] smart animal monitoring temperature, humidity, rumination and heart (temperature, heart rate, rumination) sensors, zigbee
system rate device and Ardiuno microcontroller.
[85] NodeMCU temperature, humidity, heart rate nodeMCU microcontroller, WiFi router and cell
sensors
[86] wearable sensors temperature, humidity ZigBee, posture sensing
[87] Moomonitor physiological conditions of animal biosensors and wearable technologies
[88] silent Herdsman behavioural parameters collars
[89] Moosense ambient temperature, humidity, nutrient intake stationary sensor node-enabled devices, smart nodes
and activity and a set of relay nodes
[89] WSN-based feedlot animal animal feeding behaviour monitoring battery powered IEEE 802.15.4, ear tag, feed bunk
health monitoring system and water trough routers and database server

expensive while monitoring large numbers of animals. Smith et al. smart farms, telemedicine services and other industrial applications
introduced another health monitoring system for cattle which [31]. Cattle-worn system is generally used to determine the
focused on heart rate, core body temperature, and head motion. The behavioural observations of cattle that are important for detection
system is based on AMD186 processor on a turn microcontroller of illness, injury and estrus as well as to verify that the cattle are
board [33]. The heart rate monitoring method for cattle based on behaving normally or not. In cattle-worn system, data loggers have
polar sport tester (PST) is introduced by Janzekovic et al. [76]. The been developed that can automatically detect and record animal
heart rate and body temperature parameters are also used as a behaviour [33]. Sensor technology-based health monitoring
disease examination for several animals. Wietrzyk and Radenkovic systems for cattle simplify the requirement for endlessly assessing
et al. described the ad hoc WSN-based cattle health monitoring the state of individual animals, aggregating and reporting this data
which concluded that by measured data, the livestock farmers can to the farm manager [45]. In cattle health monitoring system,
prevent the expansion of diseases [27, 34]. Arduino UNO microcontroller is used to sense various activities of
Hopster et al. introduced two techniques for measuring stress in animals such as body temperature, respiration, humidity, heartbeat
dairy cattle. The presented methods are based on and rumination. The wireless sensor node comprised of hardware
electrocardiograph and PST. From experiments, it has been part which contained four sections: a microcontroller, a sensor,
observed by authors that the PST is a suitable technique for power administration unit and wireless transceiver [83]. In the
quantifying and analysing heart rate of animals [77]. Guo et al. smart animal monitoring system, the information is transferred
presented a WSNs-based livestock monitoring and controlling through embedded hardware which is going to be added to the
method. The method is also beneficial for classifying animal animal body and data transfer will be done. So that the current
behaviour and their activities. It used the Fleck2 processor board health status of cattle could be easily monitored and preventive
and measured the parameters such as an accelerometer, measures for that can be taken [84]. The nodeMCU has been used
magnetometer and temperature for GPS information [78]. Nadimi in several applications of wireless sensor networks (WSNs)-based
et al. presented an ad hoc WSNs-based monitoring and classifying health monitoring systems for cattle. The nodeMCU provided
animal behaviour using 2.4 GHz frequency-based communication open-source, interactive, low-cost programmable and WI-FI
module [16, 29, 60]. This scheme is able to achieve communication enabled which is flawless for cattle health status monitoring.
consistency, minimum packet loss rate and energy efficient. The NodeMCU is an open source IoT platform and included firmware
handshaking protocol and multi-hop communication are used in the which runs on the ESP8266 Wi-Fi SoC from Espressif systems
system. The multi-layer perception-based artificial neural network [85]. Wearable sensors for cattle are becoming increasingly
transform is used to transform the measured behavioural important for cattle health management. These devices, if
parameters into the corresponding behavioural modes. Allen et al. manufactured exactly and used properly, can offer a timely
[79] reported the buffalo behaviour versus heat stress to define the diagnosis of diseases in cattle, ultimately decreasing financial
behaviour as a valuable parameter for producing milk. Lovett et al. losses. Such devices are mainly useful for dairy cattle and poultry
[80] introduced a measurement technique base on IR thermography farms [86]. MooMonitor is a wireless sensor that helped farmers to
for cattle. This method is useful for examining the FMD of cattle. find individual cow heats and health events with comfort through
Stewart et al. [81] described an IR thermography which is based on data analysis. It screened cows on a daily basis and classified the
indirect stress measurement of dairy cattle. Krishnamurthi et al. definite types of behaviours such as feeding, rumination, and levels
[82] presented X-ray computed tomography-based imaging for of activity [87]. Silent Herdsman provided a solution that enabled
small animals to study their physiologic measurement. Any the farmers to accurately predict their milk production for each
substantial variation in the grazing duration can show anomaly that year. The cows attired a collar that comprised a 3D accelerometer
needs the attention of farmer. Table 1 shows the various health which conveyed data back to the base station in the farm.
monitoring systems reported in the literature. Naturally, when dairy cattle are on heat she will move much more
The Zigbee device is an energy efficient, high accuracy, self- than usual, so the cattle's actions are monitored to allow the farmer
configuring, low cost, communication technology. Zigbee-based to determine the optimal time to milk. It similarly helped in
animal health monitoring system has sensor, processor and ZigBee categorising of sick animals as soon as possible [88]. Moosense is
module. It generally used four different types of sensors such as one of the primary functioning multi-objective WSNs in India
rumination sensor, heart rate sensor, temperature sensor and being energetically used for careful dairy research [89]. It is a
humidity sensor. It is used in well-known applications such as cluster of sensor networks where each cluster has a list of
smart building, environment monitoring, military surveillances, specialised systems fitted on the ground or mounted on the

148 IET Wirel. Sens. Syst., 2018, Vol. 8 Iss. 4, pp. 143-151
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animals, which are accountable for live-monitoring of a variability vii The major challenge of monitoring cattle with GPS technology
of cattle-health parameters. WSN-based feedlot animal health i. is the ability to have real-time updates, spatial accuracy and
monitoring system is designed to monitor the animal's feeding and decreased battery life.
drinking behaviours. A guiding antenna is used to permit one ix. Despite the progress of statistical methods in cattle health
router to monitor numerous animals simultaneously and an energy monitoring system for linking genetic variation to phenotypic
efficient mesh routing approach is defined to combine the traits and to disease pliability and infectivity is still considered
monitoring data [89]. as a big issue.
Presently farmers face a lot of challenges for monitoring the x. Depth observation is reduced while viewing videotape in cattle
cattle health. Most of the available system has focused only on the health monitoring system related to live observation and
measurement of heart rate to predict the health of cattle. The making it difficult to observe if animals are actually drinking
presented monitoring systems according to literature only allow or eating or just outlay time close to water or feeder. An
data to be downloaded at a fixed point only once. However, only additional challenge with video observation is the labour
subsets of animals pursue the ordered pattern of dairy cattle. These required to document and views all the cattle behaviour
systems also exhibited a long delay as the detected event can [90, movement desired.
91].
From this literature review, it has been observed that the
wearable systems are key technologies for real-time health
7 Conclusion
monitoring of cattle in aiding the veterinary staff and measuring of In this paper, cattle monitoring system and their related issues have
parameters that can provide accurate information of cattle health. been reported. Though some health monitoring systems have been
Therefore, it can be concluded that with the advent of WSN developed for cattle, but still, there are a lot of challenges faced by
technologies, the cattle health care would be less expensive [92, farmers. Therefore, there is a need for utilising WSN for
93]. Hence, the monitoring system is required that should be monitoring cattle health for early and accurate detection of diseases
capable of monitoring, rumination, heart rate and body temperature and their prevention from spreading. With the help of WSNs,
with surrounding humidity and temperature. It should have a network setups are flexible without any fixed infrastructure.
variety of features such as new materials at lower cost, energy Several researchers are there that are using different methods for
efficient, high speed, miniaturisation, high performance, monitoring and collecting the information. Moreover, several
intelligence, and portability. With all these innovations in research, commercial companies are also there that are developing and
the real-world applications of the introduced systems have not been selling their monitoring solutions in the market. This is a rapidly
done yet. There is no real-time animal health monitoring system in rising market which is moving from passive solutions to more
the market. Most of the veterinary staff determines the advanced monitoring elements. This paper provides a review of
physiological and behavioural parameters manually. The other various existing solutions for animal monitoring system by using
issue of above health monitoring solutions for cattle is the low-power consumption and low-cost sensor nodes. In future, the
robustness of the installed device on cattle. If cattle are not routing protocol is likely to be used in the farm trial to study its
comfortable with devices, they are prone to get rid of those sensor process in the related field. Further, there is the possibility of using
devices fastened to their bodies. Most of the available systems drones to assist human beings for the identification of cattle that
focus only on the measurements of heart rate to predict the health are not eating or drinking properly. Also, solar power can be used
of cattle. This survey reveals that the wearable sensors for real-time as the energy source of the routers to make the system more
cattle health monitoring systems are a key technology in helping environmentally friendly. Additionally, the concept of wake-up
veterinary staff for measuring parameters to provide accurate radios can be used. Moreover, the ultra-wide band radio-based
information about cattle health. WSN for animal health monitoring can be explored. These
technologies will present very high low-power consumption, low
6 Research issues and challenges complexity and time-domain resolution.

i. Monitoring, anticipation, and treatment of transmittable and

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