I-Corps: Blood analyzer to detect Bovine Respiratory Disease by using blood cell counts and morphology

I-Corps项目更广泛的影响/商业潜力是开发一种用于牛的便携式自动白细胞（WBC）分析系统。通过扫描牛的血液涂片，这项拟议的技术分析了饲养场中牛的健康状况，这使兽医和生产者能够做出更明智的决定，以减少死亡率和抗生素的使用。该技术的主要目的是检测牛呼吸道疾病（BRD），俗称“运输热”，这是影响全世界肉牛的最常见和最昂贵的疾病。目前的疾病检测方法可以识别病牛，但只有在它们出现症状后才能识别，而这有时太晚了，无法完全康复。提出的技术可以通过血液分析提供快速准确的牛健康评估，实现牛疾病的早期发现，甚至在症状出现之前进行选择性治疗。这一建议的诊断可能会减少饲养场抗生素的使用，并显著减少日常检查的劳动时间，最终减少因牛死亡和疾病而导致的成本。它还可能为消费者提供更健康的产品。I-Corps项目的基础是开发一种血液分析仪，使用人工智能识别模型和牛血液涂片图像的软件工具。该技术旨在检测牛呼吸道疾病（BRD）。目前，有抗生素、疫苗和其他药物治疗BRD，然而，知道何时使用这些治疗可以提高治疗效果和成本效益。其他疾病检测仪器采用基于牛呼吸道疾病相关症状的生物标志物，而所提出的技术直接从血细胞水平分析免疫系统强度。该系统通过人工智能自动测量血液涂片显微图像中白细胞的差异计数，计算出白细胞的比例，作为高可信度诊断牛病的标志。血细胞统计数据，如嗜酸性淋巴细胞比率（ELR）是免疫系统强度的良好指标，可用于预测BRD感染。这种解决方案可以在出现任何视觉症状之前发现免疫系统的损害，并为治疗留出更多时间，以便以可控的方式使用小剂量抗生素，同时在BRD造成永久性损害之前保持牛的健康。该计划是开发台式系统以及智能手机上的移动系统，以满足各种需求并满足所需的速度。这些原理和生物计量学可以应用于其他动物和人类医学。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is the development of a portable automated white blood cell (WBC) analysis system for cattle. By scanning bovine blood smears, the proposed technology analyzes the health status of cattle in feedlots, which allows veterinarians and producers to make more informed decisions to reduce the death rate and antibiotic use. The technology primarily is aimed at detecting Bovine Respiratory Disease (BRD), commonly known as the “shipping fever,” which is the most common and costly disease affecting beef cattle worldwide. Current disease detection methods can identify sick cattle, but only after they’ve shown symptoms, which is sometimes too late to recover fully. The proposed technology may offer quick and accurate cattle health assessment through blood analysis to achieve early detection of disease in cattle for selective treatment even before symptoms appear. This proposed diagnostic may decrease the administration of antibiotics in feedlots and significantly reduce labor hours for daily inspection, ultimately leading to reduced costs due to cattle death and illness. It also may provide a healthier product for consumers.This I-Corps project is based on the development of a blood analyzer using an AI recognition model and software tool on bovine blood smear images. The proposed technology is aimed at detecting Bovine Respiratory Disease (BRD). Currently, there are antibiotics, vaccines, and other medication to treat BRD, however, knowing when to use these treatments can improve the treatment effectiveness and cost efficiency. Other disease detection instruments employ biomarkers based on the symptoms related to Bovine Respiratory Disease while the proposed technology analyzes the immune system strength directly from the blood cell levels. By automatically measuring the differential white blood cell counts from blood smear microscopic images using AI, the system calculates the ratio of white blood cells as a marker for diagnosing sick cattle with high confidence. Blood cell statistics such as Eosinophil Lymphocyte Ratio (ELR) are good indicators of immune system strength and may be employed to predict BRD infection. This solution may detect compromise in the immune system before any visual symptoms develop and allow more time for treatment in order to use antibiotics in a controlled manner with small dosage while keeping the cattle healthy before BRD produces permanent damage. The plan is to develop benchtop systems as well as mobile systems on smartphones to satisfy various needs and to meet the speed required. The principles and biometrics may be translated to other animals and human medicine.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.