• Journal of Veterinary Clinics
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• v.35 no.3
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• pp.97-99
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• 2018

The aim of this study is to determine whether subcutaneous temperature (ST) was correlated with rectal temperature (RT) in cattle with inducing artificial fever. In order to determine the correlation between their temperatures, the experiment was performed as follow: Among nine Holstein steers, lipopolysaccharide (LPS) was intravenously administered at a dose of $0.5{\mu}g/kg$ of body weight to six Holstein steer, then, 6 ml of saline was administrated to three steers as a control group. After LPS injection, ST was recorded using subcutaneously implanted thermo-logger sensors at 10-min intervals, and RT was measured using a digital thermometer at 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 8 and 12 h. In steers with LPS injection, RT was highest at 3 to 4 h and recovered to a pre-challenge temperature at 8-22 h. A similar fluctuation was shown in ST except for an unexpected decrease at 1 h, and a positive correlation between RT and ST was observed in LPS-challenged steers (r = 0.497, P = 0.04). This result suggests that ST could be utilized as an index for early detection of infectious diseases or physiological events.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.299-306
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• 2016

Body temperature (BT) monitoring in cattle could be used to early detect fever from infectious disease or physiological events. Various ways to measure BT have been applied at different locations on cattle including rectum, reticulum, milk, subcutis and ear canal. In other to evaluate the temperature stability and reliability of subcutaneous temperature (ST) in highly fluctuating field conditions for continuous BT monitoring, long term ST profiles were collected and analyzed from cattle in autumn/winter and summer season by surgically implanted thermo-logger devices. Purposes of this study were to assess ST in the field condition as a reference BT and to determine any location effect of implantation on ST profile. In results, ST profile in cattle showed a clear circadian rhythm with daily lowest at 05:00 to 07:00 AM and highest around midnight and rather stable temperature readings (mean${\pm}$standard deviation [SD], $37.1^{\circ}C$ to $37.36^{\circ}C{\pm}0.91^{\circ}C$ to $1.02^{\circ}C$). STs are $1.39^{\circ}C$ to $1.65^{\circ}C$ lower than the rectal temperature and sometimes showed an irregular temperature drop below the normal physiologic one: 19.4% or 36.4% of 54,192 readings were below $36.5^{\circ}C$ or $37^{\circ}C$, respectively. Thus, for BT monitoring purposes in a fever-alarming-system, a correction algorithm is necessary to remove the influences of ambient temperature and animal resting behavior especially in winter time. One way to do this is simply discard outlier readings below $36.5^{\circ}C$ or $37^{\circ}C$ resulting in a much improved mean${\pm}$SD of $37.6^{\circ}C{\pm}0.64^{\circ}C$ or $37.8^{\circ}C{\pm}0.55^{\circ}C$, respectively. For location the upper scapula region seems the most reliable and convenient site for implantation of a thermo-sensor tag in terms of relatively low influence by ambient temperature and easy insertion compared to lower scapula or lateral neck.