Vet Innovation 2025: Can Dogs Sniff Out Respiratory Disease in Calves? 🐶🐄🧪

What if man's best friend could also be a rancher's most valuable health inspector? In 2025, veterinarians and researchers are exploring just that—by training dogs to sniff out respiratory illness in calves. This cutting-edge work could transform how disease is detected and managed in commercial beef operations 🧬🐾.

As Dr Duncan Houston, I’m excited to share the science behind this research and the potential benefits for animal welfare, antibiotic stewardship, and producer profitability 🧠💰.

📉 The Problem: Bovine Respiratory Disease in Calves

Bovine respiratory disease (BRD) is the leading cause of death in young cattle. It affects thousands of calves each year, reducing growth rates, increasing costs, and prompting widespread antibiotic use 🚨🐄.

Challenges with Current Detection:

• 📦 Health is evaluated at the group level, not the individual animal
• 💊 Many producers treat entire pens of calves with antibiotics “just in case”
• 📉 This practice contributes to rising concerns over antimicrobial resistance

🐶 The Solution: Dogs with a Nose for Disease

Dogs have proven their ability to detect cancer, COVID-19, and even diabetes in humans through scent. Now, researchers at Texas A&M University and Texas Tech University are investigating whether dogs can sniff out BRD in calves with the same accuracy 🧪👃.

Key Collaborators:

• 🎓 Veterinary behaviorists and animal scientists
• 🐕 Prison-trained scent dogs
• 🏥 Feedlot and research center veterinarians

This team is working to train and test dogs on their ability to distinguish between calves that will develop BRD and those that will remain healthy 💉📊.

🔬 How the Study Works

Phase 1: Feasibility

• 📦 Researchers tested what kind of training protocols and equipment were needed
• 🧪 Dogs were introduced to cattle scent samples (nasal swabs)

Phase 2: Accuracy Testing

• 🐕 Two dogs trained over 7 months using nasal swabs from calves
• 🎯 Goal: Teach dogs to differentiate between samples from:
  • 😷 Calves who developed BRD within 20 days
  • 💪 Calves who remained healthy for 3+ months

So far, results are mixed. BRD may not emit a unique, consistent scent signature that dogs can easily detect. But a second, more focused study is underway 🔍🐂.

💊 Why This Matters: Antibiotic Stewardship

If dogs can accurately detect BRD in calves, it could lead to a revolution in how and when antibiotics are used on the feedlot.

Benefits Include:

• 📉 Fewer antibiotics used on healthy animals
• 💰 Lower treatment costs for producers
• 🐮 Better welfare for calves by catching illness early
• 🧬 Reduced antimicrobial resistance in agriculture

Instead of mass-treating, producers could use trained dog teams near chutes to detect and isolate sick calves for individual care 🐶🩺.

📉 Current Limitations and Hurdles

• 🧠 Dogs need consistent, repeatable scent profiles
• 🔬 BRD may involve complex bacteria and viruses that vary case by case
• 👥 Training handlers and maintaining dogs in commercial feedlot settings is challenging

The first pilot study didn’t yield positive detection rates—but researchers remain hopeful that changes in training and sample collection can improve accuracy 🧪🔄.

🧪 What’s Next?

The second study is now underway and aims to:

• 📊 Improve scent collection and calibration techniques
• 🔁 Train more dogs on multiple feedlots for broader sample exposure
• 📈 Measure detection accuracy in real-world conditions

🌱 A Step Toward Smarter Herd Health

Dogs aren’t replacing vets—but they may soon assist them in ways we’ve never imagined. From COVID-19 detection at airports to cancer-sniffing canines, the possibilities of disease-scent detection are still unfolding. BRD detection in cattle could be the next frontier 🧬🚜.

📲 Ask A Vet: Innovative Care for Every Herd

If you’re a rancher or feedlot manager interested in disease detection tools—or want help navigating BRD prevention—reach out via AskAVet.com or the Ask A Vet app. We can help you explore smart, ethical care practices for healthier herds 🐄📱.

✅ Final Thoughts: Nose Work Meets Herd Work

In 2025, the idea of dogs sniffing out disease in livestock isn’t science fiction—it’s science in progress. If successful, this research could reduce antibiotic use, improve animal health, and transform how we manage disease in commercial agriculture 🧠🐾💉.

The future of herd health may just be on the nose 🐕👃.