MILTON KEYNES, U.K., 19th March 2025 – MSD Animal Health UK Limited (a subsidiary of Merck & Co., Inc., Rahway, N.J., USA (NYSE: MRK)) has launched a farmer and veterinary focused initiative to showcase how the proactive use of herd monitoring and identification technologies can improve animal health, welfare and productivity.
In the first phase of this two-to-three-year initiative, MSD Animal Health will work closely with five dairy farmers who are using the SenseHub Dairy herd monitoring system to assess the wellbeing, reproduction and productivity related outcomes of each farm’s current health and fertility protocols. Each herd’s disease and pathogen burden will also be assessed. In doing so, the MSD Animal Health Demonstration Farm Network aims to provide actionable insights and highlight the value of proactive herd health management to the wider farming community.
“With the ongoing digital revolution rapidly re-shaping the way society works, it is important that livestock farmers and we, the industry that supports them, embrace the opportunities that new technology can offer,” explains Helene Lanz, Managing Director, MSD Animal Health UK & Ireland. “We have reflected that at MSD Animal Health in recent years through investment in livestock monitoring and identification technologies to complement our biopharmaceutical portfolio.
“Systems such as SenseHub, which enables herd managers to remotely monitor their animals in real-time, are already a key component of many forward-thinking farming systems in the UK and globally. But there is still an element of misunderstanding, of mistrust and of hesitancy which is preventing the animal protein industry from adopting precision livestock farming technologies on a truly wholescale level.
“The MSD Animal Health Demonstration Network is one way in which we can further explore the benefits of these technologies and demonstrate to the wider industry how the use of real-time data can be used in tandem with preventative vaccination and treatment protocols to deliver higher standards of animal welfare and improved production efficiencies.”
SenseHub uses data collected by electronic neck or ear tags to accurately detect when cows and heifers are in heat and when they should be inseminated. It also assesses activity levels and behavioural patterns which could indicate a potential health issue, thereby enabling animals to be inspected and treated sooner.
Duncan Sinclair, Associate Director, Market Access for MSD Animal Health UK, who is leading the project adds: “The primary objective of the MSD Animal Health Demonstration Farm Network is to demonstrate how technical solutions can help farmers and their vets make incremental improvements to herd health and performance.
“Farming businesses face an ever-increasing scale and breadth of challenges including rising input costs, weather volatility and labour-related hurdles. In addition, the ever-present need to produce high quality food products from healthy animals with proven welfare and provenance further adds to the daily challenges faced on all UK livestock farms.
“We are therefore excited to be working closely with some excellent dairy farmers and their vets in England, Wales and Scotland and have already carried out BRD screening on each farm to highlight their herd’s specific pathogen burdens. We are subsequently working collaboratively with each farm to target any gaps in their current vaccination protocols. We’ll then be able to evaluate the benefits of vaccinating against these diseases and show how monitoring systems can help herd managers to assess the health, welfare and productivity of their animals to make their businesses more sustainable and profitable. We look forward to sharing the results of the project with the wider livestock farming community in due course.”
For more information about MSD Animal Health’s livestock monitoring, identification and vaccine portfolio go to https://www.msd-animal-health-hub.co.uk or visit stand P50 at this year’s Dairy Tech event at Stoneleigh on Wednesday 5th February.
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