Cows set to swallow wireless health monitor capsules
EETimes

 
Amir Ben-Artzi 
(08/10/2006 1:20 PM EDT)
 
URL: http://www.eetimes.eu/industrial/191901533 
 
Sweden’s DeLaval International, the world’s biggest milk production company, is working with startup Veterix Ltd.(Katzrin, Israel) to develop and market wireless monitoring systems for internal use with cows and other ruminant animals. 
 
MOSHAV HAVATZELET HASHARON, Israel — Sweden’s DeLaval International, the world’s biggest milk production company, is working with startup Veterix Ltd.(Katzrin, Israel) to develop and market wireless monitoring systems for internal use with ruminant animals — cattle, sheep, goats, deer and so on.
The capsule has been designed to measure and report the metabolic condition of cows as well as the heart rate and the respiratory depth and rate.

It is intended to communicate with an external control unit wirelessly and each capsule will have a unique identification. Data can then be analyzed and stored for each cow and herd.

“The system’s heart is our capsule that is swollen by the animal, and sits in its reticulum, its second stomach,” Eliav Tahar, founder and chief executive officer of Veterix told EE Times. “The system’s brain consists of our diagnostic software. The capsule will sense the temperature of the cow and by acoustic recoding will measure the heart rate, the rumination and respiration.”

Veterix said it intends to offer its heath monitoring system in the United States where the cattle population totals 100 million head.

$1.2 million was invested in the development project by Veretix and DeLaval, Tahar said. It started in October 2004 and is due to be completed by February 2008.

DeLaval, formerly Alpha Laval Agri, delivers half of all the milking equipment sold worldwide. Veterix employs 7 people and has raised $650,000 in startup funds. Veterix is looking to raise $1.5 million to complete development of its wireless capsule and launch it worldwide.

Israel, where Veterix is based, is also home to Given Imaging Ltd. (Yoqneam, Israel) whose PillCam video capsules are ingested by patients and move through the gastrointestinal tract, while wirelessly transmitting color images and data to a portable recorder.