Automated prediction of mastitis infection patterns in dairy herds using machine learning

Hyde, Robert M.; Down, Peter M.; Bradley, Andrew J.; Breen, James E.; Hudson, Chris; Leach, Katharine A.; Green, Martin J.

Abstract

© 2020, The Author(s). Mastitis in dairy cattle is extremely costly both in economic and welfare terms and is one of the most significant drivers of antimicrobial usage in dairy cattle. A critical step in the prevention of mastitis is the diagnosis of the predominant route of transmission of pathogens into either contagious (CONT) or environmental (ENV), with environmental being further subdivided as transmission during either the nonlactating “dry” period (EDP) or lactating period (EL). Using data from 1000 farms, random forest algorithms were able to replicate the complex herd level diagnoses made by specialist veterinary clinicians with a high degree of accuracy. An accuracy of 98%, positive predictive value (PPV) of 86% and negative predictive value (NPV) of 99% was achieved for the diagnosis of CONT vs ENV (with CONT as a “positive” diagnosis), and an accuracy of 78%, PPV of 76% and NPV of 81% for the diagnosis of EDP vs EL (with EDP as a “positive” diagnosis). An accurate, automated mastitis diagnosis tool has great potential to aid non-specialist veterinary clinicians to make a rapid herd level diagnosis and promptly implement appropriate control measures for an extremely damaging disease in terms of animal health, productivity, welfare and antimicrobial use.

Citation

Hyde, R. M., Down, P. M., Bradley, A. J., Breen, J. E., Hudson, C., Leach, K. A., & Green, M. J. (2020). Automated prediction of mastitis infection patterns in dairy herds using machine learning. Scientific Reports, 10(1), Article 4289. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-61126-8

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Feb 18, 2020
• Online Publication Date: Mar 9, 2020
• Publication Date: Mar 9, 2020
• Deposit Date: Apr 7, 2020
• Publicly Available Date: Apr 7, 2020
• Journal: Scientific Reports
• Electronic ISSN: 2045-2322
• Publisher: Nature Publishing Group
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 10
• Issue: 1
• Article Number: 4289
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-61126-8
• Keywords: Computational biology and bioinformatics, Diseases, Medical research
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/4211927
• Publisher URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-61126-8
• Additional Information: Received: 23 September 2019; Accepted: 18 February 2020; First Online: 9 March 2020; : The authors declare no competing interests.