Agribusiness : Using GPS-on cows to track and stop cattle rustling.

 Cattle rustling is on the rise in Africa,but not limited to Africa. Farmers losing livestock to rustlers have increased,and a solution  to curb this trend has emerged. 

The solution is the use of technology, via tracking devices .It is a crime evoking bushrangers and cattle duffers of old, but stock theft has become a modern crime and researchers are hoping to find a technological solution. 

 

A team from Central Queensland University (CQU) in Rockhampton believes a motion-sensing GPS device may hold the clue.The device detects mustering activity and sends a message to a grazier's phone. 

 Researchers hope it might hold the answer to reducing cattle rustling which, according to the 2001/2002 National Farm Crime Survey, affected 6 per cent of farms at an estimated annual cost of $16 million. Project leader Associate Professor Mark Trotter said preliminary trials had been promising.

"The core technology already exists so things like GPS tracking and motion-sensing tracking [are] a little bit like a fitbit that you see people wearing," Dr Trotter said. continue

PORCINE EPIDEMIC DIARRHOEA VIRUS .(PEDV)

PED is to become a notifiable disease in England from Friday December 18,2015 and pig-keepers and vets will be legally required to inform the Animal and Plant Health Agency of any suspicion of the disease. PED remains a significant threat to British pig-keepers. Outbreaks of high-impact strains caused up to 100% mortality in young pigs in the United States, knocking out around 10% of pig production in 2013-2014. The disease has since spread to Ukraine. Even with milder European Union strains, piglet mortality as high as 70% has been reported.The aim will be to prevent spread of PED and to eliminate the disease from the pig unit. There will be no requirement to slaughter affected animals. story credit; pig process.