Abstract
The aim of this study is to determine whether subcutaneous temperature (ST) was correlated with rectal temperature (RT) in cattle with inducing artificial fever. In order to determine the correlation between their temperatures, the experiment was performed as follow: Among nine Holstein steers, lipopolysaccharide (LPS) was intravenously administered at a dose of $0.5{\mu}g/kg$ of body weight to six Holstein steer, then, 6 ml of saline was administrated to three steers as a control group. After LPS injection, ST was recorded using subcutaneously implanted thermo-logger sensors at 10-min intervals, and RT was measured using a digital thermometer at 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 8 and 12 h. In steers with LPS injection, RT was highest at 3 to 4 h and recovered to a pre-challenge temperature at 8-22 h. A similar fluctuation was shown in ST except for an unexpected decrease at 1 h, and a positive correlation between RT and ST was observed in LPS-challenged steers (r = 0.497, P = 0.04). This result suggests that ST could be utilized as an index for early detection of infectious diseases or physiological events.