Towards sustainable and humane dairy farming: A low-cost electrochemical sensor for on-site diagnosis of milk fever.
Ali Soleimani, Farbod Amirghasemi, Abdulrahman Al-Shami, Sina Khazaee Nejad, Alicia Tsung, Yuxuan Wang, Sandra Lara Galindo, Delaram Parvin, Amber Olson, Amir Avishai, Maral P S Mousavi
Author Information
Ali Soleimani: Alfred E. Mann Department of Biomedical Engineering, Viterbi School of Engineering, University of Southern California, 1042 Downey Way, Los Angeles, 90007, California, United States.
Farbod Amirghasemi: Alfred E. Mann Department of Biomedical Engineering, Viterbi School of Engineering, University of Southern California, 1042 Downey Way, Los Angeles, 90007, California, United States.
Abdulrahman Al-Shami: Alfred E. Mann Department of Biomedical Engineering, Viterbi School of Engineering, University of Southern California, 1042 Downey Way, Los Angeles, 90007, California, United States.
Sina Khazaee Nejad: Alfred E. Mann Department of Biomedical Engineering, Viterbi School of Engineering, University of Southern California, 1042 Downey Way, Los Angeles, 90007, California, United States.
Alicia Tsung: Mork Family Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, Viterbi School of Engineering, University of Southern California, 925 Bloom Walk HED 216, Los Angeles, 90007, California, United States.
Yuxuan Wang: Alfred E. Mann Department of Biomedical Engineering, Viterbi School of Engineering, University of Southern California, 1042 Downey Way, Los Angeles, 90007, California, United States.
Sandra Lara Galindo: Alfred E. Mann Department of Biomedical Engineering, Viterbi School of Engineering, University of Southern California, 1042 Downey Way, Los Angeles, 90007, California, United States.
Delaram Parvin: Alfred E. Mann Department of Biomedical Engineering, Viterbi School of Engineering, University of Southern California, 1042 Downey Way, Los Angeles, 90007, California, United States.
Amber Olson: Chaska Valley Veterinary Clinic, 115 W 3rd Street, Chaska, 55318, Minnesota, United States.
Amir Avishai: Core Center for Excellence in Nano Imaging, University of Southern California, 925 Bloom Walk, Los Angeles, 90089, California, United States.
Maral P S Mousavi: Alfred E. Mann Department of Biomedical Engineering, Viterbi School of Engineering, University of Southern California, 1042 Downey Way, Los Angeles, 90007, California, United States. Electronic address: mousavi.maral@usc.edu.
Milk fever is a metabolic disorder that predominantly affects dairy animals during the periparturient period and within four weeks of calving. Milk fever is primarily attributed to a decrease in the animal's serum Ca levels. Clinical milk fever occurs when Ca concentration drops below 1.5 mM (6 mg/dL). Without prompt intervention, clinical milk fever leads to noticeable physical symptoms and health complications including coma and fatality. Subclinical milk fever is characterized by Ca levels between 1.5 and 2.12 mM (6-8.48 mg/dL). Approximately 50% of multiparous dairy cows suffer from subclinical milk fever during the transition to lactation. The economic impact of milk fever, both direct and indirect, is substantial, posing challenges for farmers. To address this issue, we developed a low-cost electrochemical sensor that can measure bovine serum calcium levels on-site, providing an opportunity for early detection of subclinical and clinical milk fever and early intervention. This calcium sensor is a scalable solid contact ion sensing platform that incorporates a polymeric calcium-selective membrane and ionic liquid-based reference membrane into laser-induced graphene (LIG) electrodes. Our sensing platform demonstrates a sensitivity close to the theoretical Nernstian value (29.6 mV/dec) with a limit of detection of 15.6 ��M and selectivity against the species in bovine serum. Moreover, our sensor can detect Ca in bovine serum with 91% recovery.
