Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) in England, (b) West Nile Virus and Newcastle’s disease in the United States, and (c) Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) in the United States and Canada. Long-term state-of-health monitoring in cattle

0093916, and EPS–9874732 (with matching support from the State of Kansas). Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the NSF. Abstract The benefits of real-time health diagnoses of cattle are potentially tremendous. Early detection of transmissible disease, whether from natural or terrorist events, could help to avoid huge financial losses in the agriculture industry while also improving meat quality. This paper discusses physiological and behavioral parameters relevant to cattle state-of-health assessment. These parameters, along with a potentially harsh monitoring environment, drive a set of design considerations that must be addressed when building systems to acquire long-term, real-time measurements in the field. A prototype system is presented that supports the measurement of suitable physiologic parameters and begins to address the design constraints for continuous state-of-health determination in free-roaming cattle.