Oral temperature as an indicator of disease in pre-weaned dairy calves

Diarrheal and respiratory diseases pose significant threats to pre-weaned dairy calves. Early detection affords prompt inter­vention, thereby minimizing disease spread and severity and improving welfare and performance. Change in core body tem­perature can be an early indicator of illness. In calves, this is typically measured via rectal temperature (RT) which is time intensive, stressful to the calf, and invasive. Our study explored the potential of measuring oral temperature (OT) as an alterna­tive indicator of fever in dairy calves with a goal of informing the design of novel health monitoring sensors.