Merck to acquire rights to Whisper Veterinary Stethoscope System
Merck Animal Health (known as MSD Animal Health outside the United States and Canada) today announced plans to acquire worldwide rights for the Whisper Veterinary Stethoscope System from Minnesota-based Geissler Companies. The Whisper Veterinary Stethoscope System is a Bovine Respiratory Disease (BRD) detection system which is used to determine the severity of an animal's lung condition so that the appropriate treatment regimen can be started to protect the health of the animal.
Bovine Respiratory Disease is the most common disease affecting cattle in North America. This complex, multi-factorial infection affects the upper and lower respiratory tracts and can often be fatal, causing billions of dollars in economic losses for farmers. Identifying the cause of the disease and appropriate treatment pathways is vital to maintain an infected herd.
"We are pleased to add the Whisper Veterinary Stethoscope System to our comprehensive portfolio of vaccines and pharmaceutical products for the cattle industry," said Rick DeLuca, president, Merck Animal Health. "It is important to provide our customers with the most innovative solutions available today that will meet their needs to maintain healthy stock and advance animal well-being."
"We are excited about Merck Animal Health acquiring this technology," said Randolph K. Geissler, CEO, Geissler Companies. "We believe Merck Animal Health's wide commercial reach and expertise in Bovine Respiratory Disease will help bring the Whisper Veterinary Stethoscope System to more producers, and will result in improvements to animal health and well-being."
The terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.
View a video featuring Dr. Tom Noffsinger discussing use of the Whisper system on BovineVetOnline.com
Read more detail about the Whisper system in "Auscultation in the electronic age" from Bovine Veterinarian magazine.
About the Whisper Veterinary Stethoscope System
The Whisper Veterinary Stethoscope System is a Bovine Respiratory Disease (BRD) detection system which incorporates an electronic stethoscope to capture a lung sound, then utilizes computer-aided proprietary analytics to evaluate the severity of the animal's lung condition so that the appropriate treatment regimen can be started.
Whisper is placed over the lungs of sick cattle and captures sound frequencies, determining the condition of the lungs and sending an objective score to a nearby computer. Using the Whisper score, producers can detect BRD early, determine the severity of the disease and select an appropriate treatment regimen, which may help them improve lung-health related outcomes.
