Telemetry implant system to collect and analyze physiological data on free-moving animals

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The applicants conduct research to improve the health and welfare of animals under human care, reduce costs of production of foods of animal origin, increase the value of animal products, and reduce waste outputs and the environmental footprint of livestock production. A new interdisciplinary initiative among animal biology researchers at the University of Guelph is related to precision livestock management, where large volumes of data collected automatically, continuously and remotely on individual animals and their environment are used to make software-supported decisions on individual management interventions like timing and amount of feed delivery, lighting schedule, ventilation rate, segregation patterns in a barn, etc. The requested equipment is a telemetry implant system that automatically and continuously collects, and wirelessly transmits to a computer, data on body temperature, blood pressure, heart rate, motor neuron activity, and interstitial glucose concentration from up to 16 animals simultaneously. The hands-off approach to sensing of internal state allows physiology of free-moving, conscious animals to be monitored without inducing stress typical of sampling procedures involving restraint or needle puncture. This feature is particularly useful for studying fear and panic responses, which is necessary to improve animal welfare. Stress responses during sampling may also confound assessments of physiological state, which is a concern when evaluating the quality of various nutritional or environmental interventions. Further, the ability to collect time course data with telemetry implants is valuable because of the increased density of information compared to a single measure. The requested equipment will contribute to training and research activities of 12 graduate students (10 MSc + 8 PhD) and 3 PDF now, and 17 graduate students and numerous undergraduates over the coming 5 years. The rapidly growing use of biosensors in agriculture is generating a need for HQP familiar with the equipment and its exploitation.