Researchers at the University of Guelph use RFID technology for pathogen transmission research
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Researchers at the University of Guelph have been testing radio frequency identification technology to track the movements of horses and staff to determine how the disease spreads. This technology can uniquely identify the person wearing the RFID tag, and the tag itself can collect data from the tag that is in contact with it. This solution does not require researchers to install card readers in stables and fields.
Amy Greer, assistant professor of population disease modeling at the Ontario College of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Guelph, said: “We are using computer simulations to look for trends that may lead to the spread of diseases.”
(Researchers put each label into a sealed plastic sleeve to prevent it from being contaminated and wasted.)
Greer said that in the past, potential infections were evaluated based on the view that a group of animals in a restricted area has the same risk of infection and transmission. She pointed out that this view oversimplifies the risk of infection faced by each animal, and does not take into account factors such as the people who care for the animal and the reasons for the spread of the disease.
Greer believes that researchers hope to use technology like hospitals to track the movement of patients and surrounding people to understand the risk of disease transmission. Therefore, they studied RFID technology. Greer pointed out, however, that the hospital has a Wi-Fi network and power supply, making it easier to capture information and download it into the software. The stables have no such infrastructure.
Therefore, the group has developed a system that is currently in use at 3 sites. In this system, horses and personnel wear high-memory transponders, which can transmit data to each other and download them in areas with internet. In this way, users do not need to install a gateway on site.
The technology consists of an OpenBeacon active 2.4 GHz proximity tag and a Nordic nRF51822 Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) chip, which is then attached to the horse through a hook. The unique ID number of each tag is bound to the person or horse, and the tag ID is stored in the software developed by the university. Although this technology can use BLE to communicate with beacon devices, the researchers currently only use the RFID function.
Each tag has a built-in storage capacity of 8M. When the tag worn by a horse or a person is within 2 meters of another tag, the tags will transmit ID number information to each other. Then store the data in two tags. The button battery built into these tags can last up to one week. The researchers put each label into a sealed plastic sleeve to prevent water and dirt, and then attached it to the sling.
(A tag is attached to the bridle. When the tag is within the range of another tag, the tag will read the signal of the other tag)
When each study is completed, the researcher connects the tag to the computer to upload the data. OpenBeacon tags can also use BLE to send data to mobile devices, but researchers have not yet enabled it. These data will not only reflect the label information of mutual contact, but also reflect the sequence and length of contact.
Greer said that due to the size of the horse and the presence of body fluids in the body, it is a challenge to ensure that the tags read each other effectively, which is also an obstacle to the propagation of RF signals. The team considered attaching two tags to each horse, one on the front and one on the back, but would only use the tag on the bridle because face-to-face contact would cause infection.
The three studies of the university were all carried out this year and were carried out on different racecourses. The first horse farm has 9 marked horses and 5 marked staff, and the largest horse farm has 30 marked horses and 10 marked staff. So far, the system has collected 300,000 personal contacts. The group plans to deploy again this spring and summer. Greer said that this summer, we will analyze these data. The team will then determine the pathways that may lead to the spread of the pathogen.
(Exclusive manuscript of rfid world network, please indicate the source author for reprinting!)
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