Method, system to automatically assess the vitamin status in the blood of a livestock animal

Abstract

The method (100) to automatically assess a vitamin status in the blood of a livestock animal comprises the steps of: locally, collecting (105) a drop of blood from a livestock animal on a carrier, locally, drying (110) the drop of blood of the livestock animal on the carrier, sending (115) the carrier to a remote location, via a transport vessel, said remote location comprising at least one metabolized vitamin assessment device, calculating (120), by a computing device connected to the assessment device in the remote location, a vitamin status value in the blood of the livestock animal on the carrier, determining (125), by a computing device, as a function of the calculated vitamin status value and of a target vitamin metabolite value, a livestock animal vitamin status, and locally, providing (130) the livestock animal vitamin status.

Description

[0001] SPECIFICATION

[0002] TITLE: METHOD, SYSTEM TO AUTOMATICALLY ASSESS THE VITAMIN STATUS IN THE BLOOD OF A LIVESTOCK ANIMAL

[0003] TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION

[0004] The present invention aims at a method to automatically assess the vitamin statusin the blood of a livestock animal, and a system to automatically assess the vitamin status in the blood of a livestock animal.

[0005] It applies, in particular, to the industry of animal farming.

[0006] BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

[0007] It is widely known that vitamins play an important role in the health and growth of animals. In the context of animal farming, this leads to a demand for monitoring the metabolized content of vitamins by the animals which originates from vitamins usually present in the feed of the animals. Usually, this demand arises as illness and lack of growth appear, which are due to a deficiency in vitamins. Outside of such acute situations, the vitamin status in the animals is rarely monitored due to the cost and complexity such a task entails. This is particularly true for metabolites of vitamin D, which are known to significantly impact the health of animals.

[0008] In current systems, an animal farmer must:

[0009] - obtain the assistance of a veterinarian to collect a blood sample from an animal,

[0010] - store it in a cooled environment,

[0011] - transport this cooled blood sample to an analysis laboratory via special transportation means as this blood sample is considered a biohazard,

[0012] - the analysis laboratory then determines the vitamin state in the blood sample and produces values for such contents with a local ad-hoc methodology, such methodologies typically based on measuring the presence of vitamin metabolites in the blood,

[0013] - the analysis laboratory then sends the determined vitamin status back to the animal farmer. There are several difficulties with these current systems:

[0014] - the blood sample collection is cost-inefficient, time-inefficient, and expertiseintensive,

[0015] - the storage and transportation of the blood sample requires adequate facilities and dedicated transport services, considering the biohazard risk associated with the blood sample,

[0016] - there exists an abundance of methodologies for assessing the vitamin metabolite status in the blood sample by analysis laboratories, which leads to significant variations in measurements and results obtained, and

[0017] - while it is easier to detect a deficiency in vitamin status, it is today difficult to assess the risks corresponding with vitamin statuses which are above deficiency levels.

[0018] SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

[0019] The present invention aims at addressing all or part of these drawbacks.

[0020] According to a first aspect, the present invention aims at a method to automatically assess a vitamin status in the blood of a livestock animal, which comprises the steps of:

[0021] - locally, collecting a drop of blood from a livestock animal on a carrier,

[0022] - locally, drying the drop of blood of the livestock animal on the carrier,

[0023] - sending the carrier to a remote location, via a transport vessel, said remote location comprising at least one vitamin status assessment device,

[0024] - calculating, by a computing device connected to the assessment device in the remote location, a vitamin status value in the blood of the livestock animal on the carrier,

[0025] - determining, by a computing device, as a function of the calculated vitamin status value and of a target vitamin status value, a livestock animal vitamin status, and

[0026] - locally, upon a computer interface, providing the livestock animal vitamin status.

[0027] These provisions allow for the transportation of the dried drop of blood outside of biohazard regulations and technical requirements, including, in some countries, a lack of necessity of a veterinarian doctor to collect the blood sample. These provisions also allow for the standardization of the calculation of the vitamin status value in the blood of the livestock animal. These provisions also allow for the determination of a livestock animal vitamin status, which provide substantial benefits to animal farmers since such a state is representative of health and growth risks associated with the calculated vitamin status value in the blood of the livestock animal.

[0028] In particular embodiments, the method object of the present invention further comprises the steps of:

[0029] - locally requesting, upon a computer interface, a vitamin status assessment, and

[0030] - locally receiving a carrier upon which to collect a drop of blood from a livestock animal.

[0031] Such embodiments facilitate the execution of the local drop of blood collection by reducing the logistics required from the animal farmer.

[0032] In particular embodiments, the method object of the present invention further comprises the steps of:

[0033] - computing, by a computing device, a quantity of vitamins to feed to the livestock animal to reach a future target vitamin status in the blood of the livestock animal associated with the dried drop of blood, and

[0034] - locally, providing the quantity of vitamins to feed to the livestock animal.

[0035] Such embodiments allow the proper adjustment of the vitamin status in the livestock animal by introducing, in the feed of this animal, the adequate content of unmetabolized vitamins.

[0036] In particular embodiments, the method object of the present invention further comprises a step of inputting, upon a computer interface, an animal type indicator, the step of determining a vitamin status being executed as a function of the animal type indicator selected.

[0037] Such embodiments allow for the automatic configuration of the target value as a function of the animal associated with the drop of blood collected.

[0038] In particular embodiments, the vitamin status corresponds to calcifediol. Calcifediol is also known as calcidiol, 25-hydroxycholecalciferol, or 25-hydroxyvitamin D3, and is a form of vitamin D produced in the liver by hydroxylation of vitamin D3by the enzyme vitamin D 25-hydroxylase. In particular embodiments, the method object of the present invention comprises a step of obtaining the target vitamin status value by operating a trained machine learning device upon parameters relative to the livestock animal associated with the dried blood.

[0039] Such embodiments allow the adequate threshold value definition for different states or classes of health states for animals based upon a large number of datapoints which may not be easily used in predefined algorithms due to the very significant number of relevant parameters which can influence a health status threshold.

[0040] In particular embodiments, measuring the level of metabolites in dried blood samples differs from measuring it in original (non dried) blood samples. A trained machine learning device can be used to match the two measurement methods so the one dried blood yields the same output as the original one. This is similar to what was done with Continuous Blood Glucose Monitors sensors to train the device to match the glucose concentration measured by a prick test.

[0041] In particular embodiments, during the step of determining, the calculated vitamin status value is compared to several target vitamin status values, the livestock animal vitamin metabolite status being determined as a function of the comparison between the calculated vitamin status value and the several target vitamin status values.

[0042] Such embodiments allow the use of several threshold values representative of different health and growth risks.

[0043] According to a second aspect, the present invention aims at a system to automatically assess a vitamin status in the blood of a livestock animal, which comprises:

[0044] - a carrier configured to locally collect a drop of blood from a livestock animal,

[0045] - a drier configured to dry the drop of blood of the livestock animal on the carrier,

[0046] - a transport vessel configured to send the carrier to a remote location to a remote location comprising at least one metabolized vitamin assessment device,

[0047] - a computing system connected to the assessment device in the remote location configured to calculate a vitamin status value in the blood of the livestock animal on the carrier,

[0048] - a computing system configured to determine, as a function of the calculated vitamin status value and of a target vitamin status value, a livestock animal vitamin status, and - a provider configured to locally provide the livestock animal vitamin status.

[0049] In particular embodiments, the system object of the present invention comprises one or more non-transitory computer-readable media that collectively store instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the computing system to perform operations, the instructions being representative of at least one of the steps of:

[0050] - calculating, by a computing device connected to the assessment device in the remote location, a vitamin status value in the blood of the livestock animal on the carrier,

[0051] - determining, by a computing device, as a function of the calculated vitamin status value and of a target vitamin status value, a livestock animal vitamin status, and / or

[0052] - locally, upon a computer interface, providing the livestock animal vitamin status.

[0053] The benefits of the system object of the present invention are similar to the benefits of the method object of the present invention.

[0054] BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0055] Other advantages, purposes and particular characteristics of the invention shall be apparent from the following non-exhaustive description of at least one particular embodiment or succession of steps of the present invention, in relation to the drawings annexed hereto, in which:

[0056] - Figure 1 shows, schematically, a first particular succession of steps of the method object of the present invention,

[0057] - Figure 2 shows, schematically, a particular embodiment of a computing system used in a system object of the present invention,

[0058] - Figure 3 shows, schematically, a particular embodiment of a system object of the present invention, and

[0059] - Figure 4 shows, schematically, a particular embodiment of a graphic user interface showing the vitamin status of a livestock. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0060] This description is not exhaustive, as each feature of one embodiment may be combined with any other feature of any other embodiment in an advantageous manner.

[0061] Various inventive concepts may be embodied as one or more methods, of which an example has been provided. The acts performed as part of the method may be ordered in any suitable way. Accordingly, embodiments may be constructed in which acts are performed in an order different than illustrated, which may include performing some acts simultaneously, even though shown as sequential acts in illustrative embodiments.

[0062] The phrase “and / or,” as used herein in the specification and in the claims, should be understood to mean “either or both” of the elements so conjoined, i.e. , elements that are conjunctively present in some cases and disjunctively present in other cases. Multiple elements listed with “and / or” should be construed in the same fashion, i.e., “one or more” of the elements so conjoined. Other elements may optionally be present other than the elements specifically identified by the “and / or” clause, whether related or unrelated to those elements specifically identified. Thus, as a non-limiting example, a reference to “A and / or B”, when used in conjunction with open-ended language such as “comprising” can refer, in one embodiment, to A only (optionally including elements other than B); in another embodiment, to B only (optionally including elements other than A); in yet another embodiment, to both A and B (optionally including other elements); etc.

[0063] As used herein in the specification and in the claims, “or” should be understood to have the same meaning as “and / or” as defined above. For example, when separating items in a list, “or” or “and / or” shall be interpreted as being inclusive, i.e., the inclusion of at least one, but also including more than one of a number or lists of elements, and, optionally, additional unlisted items. Only terms clearly indicated to the contrary, such as “only one of’ or “exactly one of,” or, when used in the claims, “consisting of,” will refer to the inclusion of exactly one element of a number or list of elements. In general, the term “or” as used herein shall only be interpreted as indicating exclusive alternatives (i.e., “one or the other but not both”) when preceded by terms of exclusivity, such as “either,” “one of,” “only one of,” or “exactly one of.” “Consisting essentially of,” when used in the claims, shall have its ordinary meaning as used in the field of patent law. As used herein in the specification and in the claims, the phrase “at least one,” in reference to a list of one or more elements, should be understood to mean at least one element selected from any one or more of the elements in the list of elements, but not necessarily including at least one of each and every element specifically listed within the list of elements and not excluding any combinations of elements in the list of elements. This definition also allows that elements may optionally be present other than the elements specifically identified within the list of elements to which the phrase “at least one” refers, whether related or unrelated to those elements specifically identified. Thus, as a non-limiting example, “at least one of A and B” (or, equivalently, “at least one of A or B,” or, equivalently “at least one of A and / or B”) can refer, in one embodiment, to at least one, optionally including more than one, A, with no B present (and optionally including elements other than B); in another embodiment, to at least one, optionally including more than one, B, with no A present (and optionally including elements other than A); in yet another embodiment, to at least one, optionally including more than one, A, and at least one, optionally including more than one, B (and optionally including other elements); etc.

[0064] In the claims, as well as in the specification above, all transitional phrases such as “comprising,” “including,” “carrying,” “having,” “containing,” “involving,” “holding,” “composed of,” and the like are to be understood to be open-ended, i.e., to mean including but not limited to. Only the transitional phrases “consisting of” and “consisting essentially of” shall be closed or semi-closed transitional phrases, respectively.

[0065] It should be noted at this point that the figures are not to scale.

[0066] As used herein, the terms “means of inputting” or “computer interface” is, for example, a keyboard, mouse and / or touchscreen adapted to interact with a computing system in such a way to collect user input. In variants, the means of inputting are logical in nature, such as a network port of a computing system configured to receive an input command transmitted electronically. Such an input means may be associated to a GUI (Graphic User Interface) shown to a user or an API (Application programming interface). In other variants, the means of inputting may be a sensor configured to measure a specified physical parameter relevant for the intended use case.

[0067] As used herein, the terms “computing system” or “computing device” designate any electronic calculation device, whether unitary or distributed, capable of receiving numerical inputs and providing numerical outputs by and to any sort of interface, digital and / or analog. Typically, a computing system designates either a computer executing a software having access to data storage or a client-server architecture wherein the data and / or calculation is performed at the server side while the client side acts as an interface. An example of such a computing system 200 is disclosed in regard to figure 2.

[0068] As used herein, the terms “indicator” refers to any computerized identifier, such as one used in a computer database, representing a physical object, such an enzyme for example. An indicator may refer to a label representative of the name, chemical structure, or internal reference of said enzyme, for example.

[0069] In the present description, the term “physical” is intended as existing outside of the digital environment of the present invention. “Physical” may mean, for example, readily found in nature or synthesized in a laboratory or chemical plant. In any event, a physical composition presents a tangible reality. The term “assembling” refers to the act of materialization of a composition, whether via extraction and assembly of ingredients or via synthetization and assembly of ingredients.

[0070] In the present description, the terms “livestock animal” refer to a domesticated animal raised in an agricultural environment, primarily for the production of essential commodities such as meat, milk, eggs, wool, leather, and labor. This category often includes, but is not limited to, species such as cattle (cows and bulls), pigs, sheep, goats, and poultry (chickens, turkeys, ducks). The definition may extend to other animals like horses and rabbits, depending on the context.

[0071] In the present description, the terms “vitamin metabolite” refer to any organic compound that, following ingestion, underwent biological transformation within a living organism (such as hydrolysis in the liver of vitamin D3 to form 25OHD3) to become active or more bioavailable. This transformation process, referred to as metabolism, may include, but is not limited to, processes such as oxidation, reduction, phosphorylation, methylation, acetylation, or conjugation. The a vitamin metabolite must exhibit an essential biological function or contribute to a physiological process, distinct from the function of the vitamin in its pre-metabolized state. Such terms encompass both water- soluble and fat-soluble vitamins in their metabolized forms. Examples include, but are not limited to, metabolites of Vitamin D such as calcidiol, metabolites of Vitamin A such as retinoic acid, and active forms of B vitamins like methylcobalamin (a form of Vitamin B12) and pyridoxal phosphate (a form of Vitamin B6).

[0072] Such a vitamin metabolite may correspond to (25OHD3) of vitamin D3 which can be provided as vit D3 form in animal feed, then enzymatically hydrolized in the liver of the animal and then transferred in the blood flow of this animal; or in form of HyD in feed (25OHD3) which is directly absorbed and transferred in the blood flow of the animal.

[0073] In the present description, the terms “unmetabolized vitamin” refer to both water- soluble and fat-soluble vitamins in their original, non-transformed state as ingested or administered. Examples encompass, but are not limited to, ascorbic acid (Vitamin C), thiamine (Vitamin B1), riboflavin (Vitamin B2), and tocopherol (Vitamin E) in their standard supplemental or dietary forms.

[0074] In the present description, the terms “local” and “locally” refer to steps and / or means located near the livestock animal, such as a farm or animal producing facility for example. These terms are opposed to the terms “remote” or “remotely”, which refers to steps and / or means located far from the livestock animal, such as a laboratory for example.

[0075] Figure 1 shows a particular succession of steps of the method 100 object of the present invention. This method 100 to automatically assess a vitamin status in the blood of a livestock animal, comprises the steps of:

[0076] - locally, collecting 105 a drop of blood from a livestock animal on a carrier,

[0077] - locally, drying 110 the drop of blood of the livestock animal on the carrier,

[0078] - sending 115 the carrier to a remote location, via a transport vessel, said remote location comprising at least one metabolized vitamin assessment device,

[0079] - calculating 120, by a computing device connected to the assessment device in the remote location, such as an external laboratory, a vitamin status value in the blood of the livestock animal on the carrier,

[0080] - determining 125, by a computing device, as a function of the calculated vitamin status value and of a target vitamin status value, a livestock animal vitamin status, and

[0081] - locally, providing 130 the livestock animal vitamin status. The step of collecting 105 is performed by putting the drop of blood of the livestock animal with the carrier. The carrier can be made of any material suitable for the transportation of the dried drop of blood. In particular examples, the carrier can correspond to a card formed of a porous material in which the drop of blood propagates via capillarity. Such a card can be made of paper or cellulose-based materials, polymeric sponges or foams, glass or silica-based materials, cotton or natural fibers, porous ceramics or engineered hydrogels.

[0082] Such a step of collecting 105 may be performed directly by the animal farmer by creating a puncture in the skin of the livestock animal and applying the carrier upon the puncture to collect the drop of blood.

[0083] The step of drying 110 does not require any particular means to be performed. This step of drying 110 is performed, for example, by storing the carrier in a dry environment.

[0084] The step of drying 110 may further use an active dryer, such a heating device, configured to heat the carrier to evaporate water content from the drop of blood.

[0085] The step of sending 115 is performed by the appropriate transport vessel to transport the carrier with a dried drop of blood from the local collection site to an analysis site which is located remotely from the local collection site. Such a transport vessel may be, for example, an envelope in which the carrier is positioned, and which is carried, via any postal system, from the animal producing facility to an analysis laboratory.

[0086] The step of calculating 120 is performed by retrieving data any assessment device suited for the analysis of the content of a determined metabolized vitamin and, optionally, performing post-processing calculations to obtain an output representative of the physical content of the determined metabolized vitamin. This assessment device is preferably connected to a computing device to allow for the provision of the value representative of the physical content of the determined metabolized vitamin.

[0087] Such a assessment device may be configured to operate on the dried drop of blood or upon the rehydrated drop of blood.

[0088] Such a assessment device may correspond to: - High-Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC): HPLC separates, identifies, and quantifies each component in a mixture, and is particularly suited for water- soluble vitamins,

[0089] - Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS): GC-MS separates chemical compounds using a gas chromatograph and identifies them through mass spectrometry, and is particularly suited for fat-soluble vitamins,

[0090] - Capillary Electrophoresis (CE): CE separates ionic species by their charge and size, and is suited for water-soluble vitamins, and / or

[0091] - Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA): ELISA measures concentrations of specific vitamins in blood, based on antigen-antibody interactions.

[0092] Such assessments may include the assessment of the presence of vitamin metabolites in the blood sample.

[0093] The specific algorithm used to perform the step 120 of calculating depends on the nature of the assessment device and of specific operational parameters related to the experimental environment of use of the assessment device. Such algorithms are well- known in the literature of vitamin status detection and quantification.

[0094] The step 125 of determining is performed, for example, by comparing the calculated vitamin status value to at least one target vitamin status value, said target vitamin status value being representative of a livestock animal vitamin status.

[0095] The step 130 of providing is performed, for example, by transmitting, via a computer network such as the internet for example, the determined livestock animal vitamin status to an output device 235 of a computing system, such as shown in figure 2, located in the proximity of the animal producing facility and / or the animal farmer. Such a livestock animal vitamin status may be shown upon a computer screen, for example, such as shown in figure 4. Schematically, figure 4 represents a GUI in which a user may visualize the results from a number of tests performed on a livestock, with average the resulting determined average vitamin status and distribution of the sample in risk categories corresponding to different predetermined vitamin status values.

[0096] In particular embodiments, the method 100 object of the present invention further comprises the steps of: - locally requesting 135, upon a computer interface, a vitamin status assessment, and

[0097] - locally receiving 140 a carrier upon which to collect a drop of blood from a livestock animal.

[0098] The step of requesting 135 may be performed, via an input device 240, such as shown in figure 2, of a computing system in the proximity of an animal farmer and / or an animal production facility. This input device 240 may be associated with a graphical user interface (“GUI”) shown upon a computer screen. This GUI may allow the ordering of an assessment by selecting a digital interface item representative of this assessment request and confirming the selection via the selection of another digital interface item representative of this confirmation.

[0099] Such a computing system may correspond to a smart phone or personal computer, for example.

[0100] The step of receiving 140 may be performed via any transport vessel configured to transport the carrier from a carrier storage location to the animal producing facility location. Such a step of receiving 140 may employ any postal service.

[0101] In particular embodiments, the method 100 object of the present invention further comprises the steps of:

[0102] - computing 145, by a computing device, a quantity of vitamin to feed to the livestock animal to reach a future target vitamin status in the blood of the livestock animal associated with the dried drop of blood, and

[0103] - locally, providing 150 the quantity of vitamin to feed to the livestock animal.

[0104] The step 145 of computing a quantity of vitamin to feed to the livestock animal may be performed, for example, by one or more processors configured to execute instructions representative of a dedicated algorithm which provides, as an output, a quantity of vitamin to feed to the livestock animal.

[0105] Such an algorithm may, for example, be configured to solve an equation in which the quantity of vitamin to feed to the livestock animal is equal to the quantity of vitamin status value divided by a vitamin content metabolization rate.

[0106] Such a vitamin content metabolization rate may be obtained from the literature or from a database of metabolization rates. For 25-OHD3 blood levels, an increase by 1 ng / ml for every 100 III of vitamin D ingested could be used during the step 145 of computing.

[0107] Such a database of metabolization rates may be constituted as a result of empirical measurement of vitamin content feed to vitamin status ratios for different animal species and subspecies.

[0108] The step 150 of providing may function in a similar manner to the step 130 of providing disclosed above.

[0109] In particular embodiments, the method 100 object of the present invention further comprises a step of inputting 155, upon a computer interface, an animal type indicator, the step of determining 125 being executed as a function of the animal type indicator selected.

[0110] The step 155 of inputting can be performed using an input device 240, such as disclosed in regard to figure 2. Such an input device 240 may correspond to a mouse associated with a GUI in which a user may select from a list of animal type indicators. An animal type indicator may correspond to a species, a subspecies, or a breed of animals.

[0111] During the step 125 of determining, the target vitamin status value may depend on the animal type indicator. For example, in a database, several vitamin status values may be stored depending on different animal type indicators.

[0112] In particular embodiments, the vitamin status corresponds to calcifediol.

[0113] In particular embodiments, the method 100 object of the present invention further comprises a step 160 of obtaining the target vitamin status value by operating a trained machine learning device upon parameters relative to the livestock animal associated with the dried blood.

[0114] In such embodiments, a machine learning device may be trained on a set of data representative, for animals of an animal type, of measured vitamin status values as well as a health status value for the animals. This health status may correspond to the diagnosis of medical conditions and / or to other animal growth and development physiological, biological and / or chemical values. Other parameters, representative of the development environment may also be included in the training data. Such values may be punctual or represent series tracked over time. This set of data can be labelled or unlabeled, depending on the type of machine learning device to operate. The machine learning device may correspond to a neural network device operated in a classification task configuration, with the objective of determining hyper-parameter coefficients that best fit the set of measured vitamin status data (as well as other potential input data) with the data representative of health status may correspond to the diagnosis of medical conditions and / or to other animal growth and development physiological, biological and / or chemical values.

[0115] Once the training is completed, the output is a trained machine learning device that can be used on other data to predict a health status for an animal based upon the calculated vitamin status.

[0116] The trained machine learning device may instead, or also, be configured to provide target vitamin status values which correspond to classification boundaries between health statuses for animals.

[0117] Such embodiments may be built on two distinct parts.

[0118] The first part evaluates the current health condition of the animal as an output given as input the measurements from the dried blood sample (M), the characteristics of the animal (internal factors - 1) and the characteristics of the environment (external factors - E). The output can either be a binary classification (healthy, unhealthy) or even multiclass labeling, or it can be a health score for example from 0 to 100. So this first part ouputs f(M | I , E). The f() function can consist of a linear model or a mixed model (linear + non-linear).

[0119] The second part provides a recommendation on how to adjust the current level of vitamins in the feed in order to go from unhealthy to healthy or to increase the health score of the animal to a target value. This model is based on a known population data set or from dynamics known from literature. It calculates Y = g(M, X | T, I, E ) where Y are the recommended levels of the different vitamins in the feed and X is the current level of vitamins in the feed. T is the target value for the health score (or the delta respect to the current estimate from f()). As before M, is the vector of measurement of metabolites from the dried blood sample and I, E are the internal and external conditions respectively.

[0120] The g() function is derived by training a machine learning algorithm on an available set of data linking the inputs with the outputs given under a varying set of conditions. Figure 2 represents a block diagram that illustrates an example computer system with which an embodiment of the system and / or the method object of the present invention may be implemented. In the example of figure 2, a computer system 205 and instructions for implementing the disclosed technologies in hardware, software, or a combination of hardware and software, are represented schematically, for example as boxes and circles, at the same level of detail that is commonly used by persons of ordinary skill in the art to which this disclosure pertains for communicating about computer architecture and computer systems implementations.

[0121] The computer system 205 includes an input / output (IO) subsystem 220 which may include a bus and / or other communication mechanism(s) for communicating information and / or instructions between the components of the computer system 205 over electronic signal paths. The I / O subsystem 220 may include an I / O controller, a memory controller and at least one I / O port. The electronic signal paths are represented schematically in the drawings, for example as lines, unidirectional arrows, or bidirectional arrows.

[0122] At least one hardware processor 210 is coupled to the I / O subsystem 220 for processing information and instructions. Hardware processor 210 may include, for example, a general-purpose microprocessor or microcontroller and / or a special-purpose microprocessor such as an embedded system or a graphics processing unit (GPU) or a digital signal processor or ARM processor. Processor 210 may comprise an integrated arithmetic logic unit (ALU) or may be coupled to a separate ALU.

[0123] Computer system 205 includes one or more units of memory 225, such as a main memory, which is coupled to I / O subsystem 220 for electronically digitally storing data and instructions to be executed by processor 210. Memory 225 may include volatile memory such as various forms of random-access memory (RAM) or other dynamic storage device. Memory 225 also may be used for storing temporary variables or other intermediate information during execution of instructions to be executed by processor 210. Such instructions, when stored in non-transitory computer-readable storage media accessible to processor 210, can render computer system 205 into a special-purpose machine that is customized to perform the operations specified in the instructions.

[0124] Computer system 205 further includes non-volatile memory such as read only memory (ROM) 230 or other static storage device coupled to the I / O subsystem 220 for storing information and instructions for processor 210. The ROM 230 may include various forms of programmable ROM (PROM) such as erasable PROM (EPROM) or electrically erasable PROM (EEPROM). A unit of persistent storage 215 may include various forms of non-volatile RAM (NVRAM), such as FLASH memory, or solid-state storage, magnetic disk, or optical disk such as CD-ROM or DVD-ROM and may be coupled to I / O subsystem 220 for storing information and instructions. Storage 215 is an example of a non-transitory computer-readable medium that may be used to store instructions and data which when executed by the processor 210 cause performing computer-implemented methods to execute the techniques herein.

[0125] The instructions in memory 225, ROM 230 or storage 215 may comprise one or more sets of instructions that are organized as modules, methods, objects, functions, routines, or calls. The instructions may be organized as one or more computer programs, operating system services, or application programs including mobile apps. The instructions may comprise an operating system and / or system software; one or more libraries to support multimedia, programming or other functions; data protocol instructions or stacks to implement TCP / IP, HTTP or other communication protocols; file format processing instructions to parse or render files coded using HTML, XML, JPEG, MPEG or PNG; user interface instructions to render or interpret commands for a graphical user interface (GUI), command-line interface or text user interface; application software such as an office suite, internet access applications, design and manufacturing applications, graphics applications, audio applications, software engineering applications, educational applications, games or miscellaneous applications. The instructions may implement a web server, web application server or web client. The instructions may be organized as a presentation layer, application layer and data storage layer such as a relational database system using structured query language (SQL) or no SQL, an object store, a graph database, a flat file system or other data storage.

[0126] Computer system 205 may be coupled via I / O subsystem 220 to at least one output device 235. In one embodiment, output device 235 is a digital computer display. Examples of a display that may be used in various embodiments include a touch screen display or a light-emitting diode (LED) display or a liquid crystal display (LCD) or an e- paper display. Computer system 205 may include other type(s) of output devices 235, alternatively or in addition to a display device. Examples of other output devices 235 include printers, ticket printers, plotters, projectors, sound cards or video cards, speakers, buzzers or piezoelectric devices or other audible devices, lamps or LED or LCD indicators, haptic devices, actuators, or servos.

[0127] At least one input device 240 is coupled to I / O subsystem 220 for communicating signals, data, command selections or gestures to processor 210. Examples of input devices 240 include touch screens, microphones, still and video digital cameras, alphanumeric and other keys, keypads, keyboards, graphics tablets, image scanners, joysticks, clocks, switches, buttons, dials, slides.

[0128] Another type of input device is a control device 245, which may perform cursor control or other automated control functions such as navigation in a graphical interface on a display screen, alternatively or in addition to input functions. Control device 245 may be a touchpad, a mouse, a trackball, or cursor direction keys for communicating direction information and command selections to processor 210 and for controlling cursor movement on display 235. The input device may have at least two degrees of freedom in two axes, a first axis (e.g., x) and a second axis (e.g., y), that allows the device to specify positions in a plane. Another type of input device is a wired, wireless, or optical control device such as a joystick, wand, console, steering wheel, pedal, gearshift mechanism or other type of control device. An input device 240 may include a combination of multiple different input devices, such as a video camera and a depth sensor.

[0129] In another embodiment, computer system 205 may comprise an internet of things (loT) device in which one or more of the output device 235, input device 240, and control device 245 are omitted. Or, in such an embodiment, the input device 240 may comprise one or more cameras, motion detectors, thermometers, microphones, seismic detectors, other sensors or detectors, measurement devices or encoders and the output device 235 may comprise a special-purpose display such as a single-line LED or LCD display, one or more indicators, a display panel, a meter, a valve, a solenoid, an actuator or a servo.

[0130] Computer system 205 may implement the techniques described herein using customized hard-wired logic, at least one ASIC or FPGA, firmware and / or program instructions or logic which when loaded and used or executed in combination with the computer system causes or programs the computer system to operate as a special- purpose machine. According to one embodiment, the techniques herein are performed by computer system 205 in response to processor 210 executing at least one sequence of at least one instruction contained in main memory 225. Such instructions may be read into main memory 225 from another storage medium, such as storage 215. Execution of the sequences of instructions contained in main memory 225 causes processor 210 to perform the process steps described herein. In alternative embodiments, hard-wired circuitry may be used in place of or in combination with software instructions.

[0131] The term “storage media” as used herein refers to any non-transitory media that store data and / or instructions that cause a machine to operation in a specific fashion. Such storage media may comprise non-volatile media and / or volatile media. Non-volatile media includes, for example, optical or magnetic disks, such as storage 215. Volatile media includes dynamic memory, such as memory 225. Common forms of storage media include, for example, a hard disk, solid state drive, flash drive, magnetic data storage medium, any optical or physical data storage medium, memory chip, or the like.

[0132] Storage media is distinct from but may be used in conjunction with transmission media. Transmission media participates in transferring information between storage media. For example, transmission media includes coaxial cables, copper wire and fiber optics, including the wires that comprise a bus of I / O subsystem 220. Transmission media can also take the form of acoustic or light waves, such as those generated during radiowave and infra-red data communications.

[0133] Various forms of media may be involved in carrying at least one sequence of at least one instruction to processor 210 for execution. For example, the instructions may initially be carried on a magnetic disk or solid-state drive of a remote computer. The remote computer can load the instructions into its dynamic memory and send the instructions over a communication link such as a fiber optic or coaxial cable or telephone line using a modem. A modem or router local to computer system 205 can receive the data on the communication link and convert the data to a format that can be read by computer system 205. For instance, a receiver such as a radio frequency antenna or an infrared detector can receive the data carried in a wireless or optical signal and appropriate circuitry can provide the data to I / O subsystem 220 such as place the data on a bus. I / O subsystem 220 carries the data to memory 225, from which processor 210 retrieves and executes the instructions. The instructions received by memory 225 may optionally be stored on storage 215 either before or after execution by processor 210.

[0134] Computer system 205 also includes a communication interface 260 coupled to bus 220. Communication interface 260 provides a two-way data communication coupling to network link(s) 265 that are directly or indirectly connected to at least one communication networks, such as a network 270 or a public or private cloud on the Internet. For example, communication interface 260 may be an Ethernet networking interface, integrated- services digital network (ISDN) card, cable modem, satellite modem, or a modem to provide a data communication connection to a corresponding type of communications line, for example an Ethernet cable or a metal cable of any kind or a fiber-optic line or a telephone line. Network 270 broadly represents a local area network (LAN), wide-area network (WAN), campus network, internetwork, or any combination thereof. Communication interface 260 may comprise a LAN card to provide a data communication connection to a compatible LAN, or a cellular radiotelephone interface that is wired to send or receive cellular data according to cellular radiotelephone wireless networking standards, or a satellite radio interface that is wired to send or receive digital data according to satellite wireless networking standards. In any such implementation, communication interface 260 sends and receives electrical, electromagnetic, or optical signals over signal paths that carry digital data streams representing various types of information.

[0135] Network link 265 typically provides electrical, electromagnetic, or optical data communication directly or through at least one network to other data devices, using, for example, satellite, cellular, Wi-Fi, or BLUETOOTH technology. For example, network link 265 may provide a connection through a network 270 to a host computer 250.

[0136] Furthermore, network link 265 may provide a connection through network 270 or to other computing devices via internetworking devices and / or computers that are operated by an Internet Service Provider (ISP) 275. ISP 275 provides data communication services through a world-wide packet data communication network represented as internet 280. A server computer 255 may be coupled to internet 280. Server 255 broadly represents any computer, data center, virtual machine, or virtual computing instance with or without a hypervisor, or computer executing a containerized program system such as DOCKER or KUBERNETES. Server 255 may represent an electronic digital service that is implemented using more than one computer or instance and that is accessed and used by transmitting web services requests, uniform resource locator (URL) strings with parameters in HTTP payloads, API calls, app services calls, or other service calls. Computer system 205 and server 255 may form elements of a distributed computing system that includes other computers, a processing cluster, server farm or other organization of computers that cooperate to perform tasks or execute applications or services. Server 255 may comprise one or more sets of instructions that are organized as modules, methods, objects, functions, routines, or calls. The instructions may be organized as one or more computer programs, operating system services, or application programs including mobile apps. The instructions may comprise an operating system and / or system software; one or more libraries to support multimedia, programming or other functions; data protocol instructions or stacks to implement TCP / IP, HTTP or other communication protocols; file format processing instructions to parse or render files coded using HTML, XML, JPEG, MPEG or PNG; user interface instructions to render or interpret commands for a graphical user interface (GUI), command-line interface or text user interface; application software such as an office suite, internet access applications, design and manufacturing applications, graphics applications, audio applications, software engineering applications, educational applications, games or miscellaneous applications. Server 255 may comprise a web application server that hosts a presentation layer, application layer and data storage layer such as a relational database system using structured query language (SQL) or no SQL, an object store, a graph database, a flat file system or other data storage.

[0137] Computer system 205 can send messages and receive data and instructions, including program code, through the network(s), network link 265 and communication interface 260. In the Internet example, a server 255 might transmit a requested code for an application program through Internet 280, ISP 275, local network 270 and communication interface 260. The received code may be executed by processor 210 as it is received, and / or stored in storage 215, or other non-volatile storage for later execution. The execution of instructions as described in this section may implement a process in the form of an instance of a computer program that is being executed and consisting of program code and its current activity. Depending on the operating system (OS), a process may be made up of multiple threads of execution that execute instructions concurrently. In this context, a computer program is a passive collection of instructions, while a process may be the actual execution of those instructions. Several processes may be associated with the same program; for example, opening up several instances of the same program often means more than one process is being executed. Multitasking may be implemented to allow multiple processes to share processor 210. While each processor 210 or core of the processor executes a single task at a time, computer system 205 may be programmed to implement multitasking to allow each processor to switch between tasks that are being executed without having to wait for each task to finish. In an embodiment, switches may be performed when tasks perform input / output operations, when a task indicates that it can be switched, or on hardware interrupts. Time-sharing may be implemented to allow fast response for interactive user applications by rapidly performing context switches to provide the appearance of concurrent execution of multiple processes simultaneously. In an embodiment, for security and reliability, an operating system may prevent direct communication between independent processes, providing strictly mediated and controlled inter-process communication functionality.

[0138] Figure 3 represents, schematically, a particular embodiment of the system object of the present invention. This system 300 to automatically assess a vitamin status in the blood of a livestock animal, comprises:

[0139] - a carrier 305 configured to locally collect a drop of blood from a livestock animal,

[0140] - a drier 310 configured to dry the drop of blood of the livestock animal on the carrier,

[0141] - a transport vessel 315 configured to send the carrier to a remote location to a remote location comprising at least one metabolized vitamin assessment device 320,

[0142] - a computing system 200 connected to the assessment device in the remote location configured to calculate a vitamin status value in the blood of the livestock animal on the carrier, - a computing system 200 configured to determine, as a function of the calculated vitamin status value and of a target vitamin status value, a livestock animal vitamin status, and

[0143] - a provider 325 configured to locally provide the livestock animal vitamin status. In particular embodiments, this system 300 comprises one or more non-transitory computer-readable media that collectively store instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the computing system 200 to perform operations, the instructions being representative of at least one of the steps of:

[0144] - calculating, by a computing device connected to the assessment device in the remote location, a vitamin status value in the blood of the livestock animal on the carrier,

[0145] - determining, by a computing device, as a function of the calculated vitamin status value and of a target vitamin status value, a livestock animal vitamin metabolite status, and / or - locally, upon a computer interface, providing the livestock animal vitamin status.

[0146] Particular embodiments of the features of the system 300 have been disclosed in regard to figures 1 and 2.

Claims

CLAIMS1 . Method (100) to automatically assess a vitamin status in the blood of a livestock animal, characterized in that it comprises the steps of:- locally, collecting (105) a drop of blood from a livestock animal on a carrier,- locally, drying (110) the drop of blood of the livestock animal on the carrier,- sending (115) the carrier to a remote location, via a transport vessel, said remote location comprising at least one metabolized vitamin assessment device,- calculating (120), by a computing device connected to the assessment device in the remote location, a vitamin status value in the blood of the livestock animal on the carrier,- determining (125), by a computing device, as a function of the calculated vitamin status value and of a target vitamin status value, a livestock animal vitamin status, and- locally, providing (130) the livestock animal vitamin status.

2. Method (100) according to claim 1 , which further comprises the steps of:- locally requesting (135), upon a computer interface, a vitamin status assessment, and- locally receiving (140) a carrier upon which to collect a drop of blood from a livestock animal.

3. Method (100) according to any one of claims 1 or 2, which further comprises the steps of:- computing (145), by a computing device, a quantity of vitamin to feed to the livestock animal to reach a future target vitamin status in the blood of the livestock animal associated with the dried drop of blood, and- locally, providing (150) the quantity of vitamin to feed to the livestock animal.

4. Method (100) according to any one of claims 1 to 3, which further comprises a step of inputting (155), upon a computer interface, an animal type indicator, the step of determining (125) being executed as a function of the animal type indicator selected.

5. Method (100) according to any one of claims 1 to 4, in which the vitamin status corresponds to calcifediol.

6. Method (100) according to any one of claims 1 to 5, which comprises a step (160) of obtaining the target vitamin status value by operating a trained machine learning device upon parameters relative to the livestock animal associated with the dried blood.

7. Method (100) according to any one of claims 1 to 6, in which, during the step (125) of determining, the calculated vitamin status value is compared to several target vitamin status values, the livestock animal vitamin status being determined as a function of the comparison between the calculated vitamin status value and the several target vitamin status values.

8. System (300) to automatically assess a vitamin status in the blood of a livestock animal, characterized in that it comprises:- a carrier (305) configured to locally collect a drop of blood from a livestock animal,- a drier (310) configured to dry the drop of blood of the livestock animal on the carrier,- a transport vessel (315) configured to send the carrier to a remote location to a remote location comprising at least one metabolized vitamin assessment device (320),- a computing system (200) connected to the assessment device in the remote location configured to calculate a vitamin status value in the blood of the livestock animal on the carrier,- a computing system (200) configured to determine, as a function of the calculated vitamin status value and of a target vitamin status value, a livestock animal vitamin status, and- a provider (325) configured to locally provide the livestock animal vitamin status.

9. System (300) according to claim 8, which comprises one or more non-transitory computer-readable media that collectively store instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the computing system (200) to perform operations, the instructions being representative of at least one of the steps of:- calculating, by a computing device connected to the assessment device in the remote location, a vitamin status value in the blood of the livestock animal on the carrier, - determining, by a computing device, as a function of the calculated vitamin status value and of a target vitamin status value, a livestock animal vitamin status, and / or- locally, upon a computer interface, providing the livestock animal vitamin status.

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