Ongoing threats surrounding biosecurity, chemical-resistant diseases and parasites, predation and animal welfare, present mounting challenges for Australia’s livestock sector.
Luckily, existing and emerging technology offers a wide range of solutions from wearable and implantable activity and health monitors for individual animals, herd-based management systems, whole farm biosecurity and more.
AgTech solutions are rapidly changing the ways that producers can prevent, diagnose, treat and eradicate parasites and diseases, and manage predation.
Digital tools that facilitate prevention and early diagnosis greatly reduce the risk of occurrence and augment traditional herd-wide monitoring and treatments. Developers of animal monitoring and identification tools such as GPS/accelerometer ear tags, implantable devices and virtual fencing, all list animal health and welfare among their motivators.
If or when animals are diagnosed with symptoms of predation, parasites or disease, a wide range of new application-based decision tools have emerged to take the guesswork out of treatments and dosages. In addition, herd management tools can offer improved outcomes for protection, through quarantining or informing whole farm management plans.
Another emerging trend in the animal health space is that of post-farm traceability of animal products through processing, distribution and consumption chains. New provenance solutions will aid in the tracking of any animal disease outbreaks back to the farm-gate level, augmenting food safety and traceability processes. This will further improve Australia’s reputation for delivering safe and high-quality animal-based food products.
