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Student 10-Minute Presentation

Medical, Urban, and Veterinary Entomology

Student

Student Competition

Grad 10-min Competition: MUVE, Medical and Veterinary Entomology and Vector Biology and Management

Enhancing S.M.A.R.T. surveillance to improve pest detection on beef cattle

Monday, November 11, 2024
10:42 AM – 10:54 AM MST
Location: Phoenix Convention Center, 221 A, PCC
Oral Presentation Student Competition
The United States cattle industry loses an estimated $5.7 billion USD to fly and tick feeding annually. These ectoparasites blood feed on their bovine hosts, causing blood loss, reduced feed efficiency, reduced milk quality and quantities, hide damage, and pathogen transmission. Traditional methods of fly and tick surveillance are time consuming and often unsafe for producers; therefore, we are working to automate that process. A neural network is being developed using ~1,000 volunteer-submitted and human-annotated images of flies and ticks on a variety of host animals. Preliminary results indicate that the S.M.A.R.T. (sensors, monitoring, analysis, and reporting technologies) surveillance system can detect flies and ticks with a mean average precision of 34.4% and 44.15%, respectively. To further involve stakeholders in the development process, we plan to conduct focus groups to improve the system and encourage buy-in. The objective of this project is to identify strengths, weaknesses, and areas for improving a S.M.A.R.T. surveillance platform for fly and tick detection on beef cattle. Focus groups will be conducted at various University of Tennessee sponsored events and the Tennessee Cattlemen’s Association Annual Meeting. These sessions will first demonstrate the applicability of the S.M.A.R.T. surveillance platform. We will then use a discussion guide with open-ended questions and prompts to encourage honest and detailed feedback, allowing us to identify usability issues, gather feedback on specific features, and explore stakeholders’ preferences for the technology. Findings will be used to improve the S.M.A.R.T. surveillance platform before executing surveying a broader audience of producers.