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Updated: May 15, 2026
Infrared Thermography for the Detection of Changes in Brown Adipose Tissue Activity
Published on: September 28, 2022
Monitoring the body temperature of cows and calves using video recordings from an infrared thermography camera
Gundula Hoffmann1, Mariana Schmidt, Christian Ammon
1Department of Engineering for Livestock Management, Leibniz Institute for Agricultural Engineering Potsdam-Bornim, Max-Eyth-Allee 100, 14469 Potsdam, Germany. ghoffmann@atb-potsdam.de
Abstract:
The aim of this study was to assess the variability of temperatures measured by a video-based infrared camera (IRC) in comparison to rectal and vaginal temperatures. The body surface temperatures of cows and calves were measured contactless at different body regions using videos from the IRC. Altogether, 22 cows and 9 calves were examined. The differences of the measured IRC temperatures among the body regions, i.e. eye (mean: 37.0 °C), back of the ear (35.6 °C), shoulder (34.9 °C) and vulva (37.2 °C), were significant (P < 0.01), except between eye and vulva (P = 0.99). The quartile ranges of the measured IRC temperatures at the 4 above mentioned regions were between 1.2 and 1.8 K. Of the investigated body regions the eye and the back of the ear proved to be suitable as practical regions for temperature monitoring. The temperatures of these 2 regions could be gained by the use of the maximum temperatures of the head and body area. Therefore, only the maximum temperatures of both areas were used for further analysis. The data analysis showed an increase for the maximum temperature measured by IRC at head and body area with an increase of rectal temperature in cows and calves. The use of infrared thermography videos has the advantage to analyze more than 1 picture per animal in a short period of time, and shows potential as a monitoring system for body temperatures in cattle.
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01:13Equipments Used to Measure Body Temperature
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01:27Assessing Body Temperature - Rectal
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01:19Assessing Body Temperature - Temporal Artery
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01:14Assessing Body Temperature - Oral
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01:14Assessing Body Temperature - Axilla
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