Design and Implementation of Stud-farm Daily Management System Based on C/S Structure

Luan Hong-liang, Wang Hong-bin, Qin Hong-yu, Wang Chao, Zhai Zhi-nan, and Xiao Jian-hua

College of Veterinary Medicine, Northeast Agricultural University, Harbin 150030, China

Design and Implementation of Stud-farm Daily Management System Based on C/S Structure

Luan Hong-liang, Wang Hong-bin, Qin Hong-yu, Wang Chao, Zhai Zhi-nan, and Xiao Jian-hua*

College of Veterinary Medicine, Northeast Agricultural University, Harbin 150030, China

In order to achieve the computerization and digitization of the daily system of stud-farm, the immunization system technology, racecourse health monitoring technologies and the stud-farm prevention technologies were combined to built the studfarm daily management system. By using Visual Studio 2008 and Microsoft Office Access 2003, an immunization information system was developed based on Client/Server structure and combined with the key immunization link of horses. The system included studfarm immune management and racecourse health monitoring system. The immune management contained immunization information input, the inquiry of immunization information, immunization statistics, immunization-reminding and system management. The racecourse health monitoring system included stud-farm monitoring, horses monitoring and inquiry and statistics of health monitoring. The software realized the analysis and tips of the daily information in stud-farm. The software could record the appropriate data and carry on the statistics. The stud-farm daily management system greatly improved the efficiency of the expanded program about immunization and horses' healthy rearing technique.

immunization management, health monitoring, system design, stud-farm

Introduction

If you can use computer softwares to help veterinary staff to work, and the software can provide advance tips of the daily basic immunization of horses, it will undoubtedly improve the efficiency of the studfarm veterinary staff and avoid large accumulation and long-lost of the original information. The software can not only quickly and accurately provide comprehensive integrated information (Yang, 1998), but also avoid the occurrence of "immunization missing". According to the survey (Chen, 2012; Yan, 1983; Lin, 1994), the rapid development of equestrian sport is improving, but the management level of feeding horses is lower and fails to keep pace with the development. That racehorse generated the appearance of the injuries, diseases and frequent fatalities. Horses that valued one million RMB and imported less than a year were dead because of the illness (Wang, 2000). Thus, the daily basic immunization of the horses is not only the extremely important and essential work, but also a very heavy job. In order to adapt to the new social situation, social progress and meet the public needs and provide quality and efficient services, establishment and application of computer network system is imperative in stud-farm. In the network system, the hardware choices of the network play a role. The network software is an important tool for mining potential of the network (Liu, 2013). Sofar, nobody has cared about the software of immune management for stud-farm. We need to design its own databases and build immunity inference engine. In this study, indicators around all aspects of the horses immune need to be observed from the stud-farm. In this paper, we built relational databases about horses immune and develop the stud-farm immunization management system making use of database and programming technique. The software needs to achieve immune data entry and maintenance and to achieve immunization information statistics and immunization reminder. The software will provide intelligent immunization management technology for stud-farm. The ra-cecourse health monitoring system can be used for continuous monitoring and scientific evaluation of stud-farm environmental safety and horses' health. The racecourse health monitoring system not only can provide decision basis for administrators and veterinary staff, but also can improve the efficiency of the racecourse daily health management and productivity effect of stud-farm.

Principles and Methods

Development and runtime environment of software

Considering not only sharing out the work and cooperating between departments, but also ensuring fast and convenient data entry, system development adopted the Client/Server structure. Based on that, this management system would achieve the internal integration of the distributed resources information. Development of software used Visual Studio 2008 system development platform, and programming language chose VB.NET development tools. Database management system used full-featured Microsoft Office Access 2003 to connect to the database. The reason of selecting VB.NET framework is that: (1) It has Common Language Runtime (CLR), which provides a standard run-time library for all. NET applications and supports for multi-language (such as VB.NET, C#, C++ and Jscript.NET etc.) programming. It makes developers be familiar with different programming language work directly and development, improving the speed of system development and speeding up the development process. (2) Because the programming of .NET framework is fully objectoriented and the component-based architecture makes application come true, code reuse is achieved and system maintenance is easy (Du, 2003; Zhang et al., 2009).

Design goals

In order to realize the intelligent and digital of the stud-farm, improve the efficiency of management substantially and increase efforts of horses' health monitoring, the stud-farm daily management system should be developed and supported by computer technology assistance. Based on that, stud-farm health management system will be optimized and animal husbandry can be promoted to the development of intensive management.

System architecture

The software adopted Visual Studio 2008 system and was based on as VB.NET for the development. The system used the Microsoft Office Access 2003 database as a background management to achieve the management of the routine management in studfarm. The system used C/S mode that was three-tier architecture, such as the user interface layer, business logic and data layers (Hu et al., 2009; Xiao et al., 2012). The system structure is shown in Fig. 1. Based on the system in this scenario, the stud-farm management and veterinary workers made check management information on different horses (such as immunization information, health information), immunization reminders and statistical analyses of the immunization and health information by using this software. Studfarm daily management system based on C/S structure could provide accurate and legible data for staff, reference for professional analysis. This system module was divided clearly. This system function was designed perfectly and applicable to actual production. The daily management system could monitor stud-farm in time, so that horses' health state had been precaution.

Overall function of system

The overall function of the system included two parts, that was the function modules of immunization system and the function modules of the health monitoring. The function modules of immunization system comprised a plurality of component. The software combined stud-farm practical application, and was convenient for use of the stud-farm staff. The software had five major functions, which were immunization query, entering the information of immunization, immunization statistics, immunization reminder and systematic management. Advantage of the system was conducive to the management staff of the stud-farm to check the horse basic immunization information, which would help the veterinary staff to manage the horse immunization information. The function modules of health monitoring combined the practical needs of the racecourse. This module could carry out real-time monitoring for horses living environment and health status, and provide favorable and healthy surroundings. The function modules of the health monitoring system comprised stud-farm monitoring module, horses' health monitoring module and health inquiry statistics module. The function modules of the daily management system are shown in Fig. 2.

Fig. 1 System structure

Fig. 2 Function modules of daily management system

Design of the software database

On the basis of stud-farm daily management system involved knowledge, the model structure of relational database was adopted by this database. To achieve the function of the daily management system, the database of the daily management system should contained the basic health monitoring data and immunization program data. Based on practical application of the health monitoring and immunization management process, database structure of the system was designed. Taking advantage of the systematic database model, the relationship between each type of data was analyzed and data types of data table were designed rationally (Luan, 2011). According to the inferential information and associated structural information of expert database system (EDS), we should build daily management database system. The basic idea of EDS was to introduce expert system technology based on the knowledge representation and knowledge processing to traditional database, so that both of the databases would be combined, developing the system that could share information and problem-oriented knowledge management (Wang et al., 2005; Yang et al., 2006; Cai et al., 2000). Inputting the basic health monitoring information and the data of immunization program ensured that the normal function of the daily management system plays a basic role. The database structure is shown in Fig. 3.

Results

Immunization function model

As the agricultural structure adjustment, the rapid development of animal husbandry, intensive cultivation and the unceasing advancement of scale, the types of disease have increased. In order to prevent and control the stud-farm infectious disease, veterinary workers must use the vaccines correctly, and carry on the immunoprophylaxis for horses scientifically.

Fig. 3 Database structure

Immunization information-input

Immune information-input module is mainly about the basic information input of horses, including horse number, name of vaccine, stable number, date of birth, dates of immunization from the first to the fifth, gender, breed, age, necessity of annual reinforce, medical history, and input person. After the above basic immune information was input and saved, it entered the database of Microsoft Office Access2003, through which the process of basic immune information input was realized. This module implemented the digitization of horse immune information as well as laid a foundation for other function modules, which made full preparations for the function exertion of immune management system.

Immune information-inquiry

The immune information-inquiry module refers to inquire about immune information under different conditions. It is divided into three sub modules, that is, inquiry according to the name of vaccine, inquiry according to horse numbers, and inquiry according to immune procedure. By selecting different immune conditions, the corresponding immune information that meets the prerequisite can be searched, which makes it very convenient for managers to search immune information by particular number at regular time and makes it manageable. Moreover, it is conducive to veterinaries sorting out the immune information in time after finishing their work.

Immune information-statistics

The leading function of the immune informationstatistics module is to classify, count, and analyze the immune information recorded in the system, and then show up in the form of tables and histograms (Luan, 2009), which can show corresponding changes of immune situation in stud-farm. Through this, the managers could understand the immune status of horses intuitively for easy management. Immunization statistics is shown in Fig. 4.

Fig. 4 Immunization statistics

Immunization-reminding

Immunization-reminding module is a reminder of immune program. The intelligent of immune program was realized by being combined with immune information-input database and immune proceduredatabase. According to date of birth and age of horses, the relationship between calculated date and program date could be calculated. If the calculated date was late than the program date, the immune date of unvaccinated horses would be marked by red font hinting no immunization. If the program date was late than the calculated date, the immune date of vaccinated horses would be marked by black font hinting immunization and the immune date of unvaccinated horses would be marked by blue font hinting expected immunization. To a great extent, immunization-reminding function made it convenient for veterinaries to make immunizations for horses in time and to avoid omissions. Although the software did not contain all the immunization programs of horses, the artificial functionality was designed. Users could modify the vaccine information sheet and basic immunization schedule to build a new foundation for their own immunization programs, and implement the new immunization-reminding of horses (Lv and Yang, 2008; Cai et al., 2013). The structure diagram of immunization-reminding is shown in Fig. 5, and the implementation of the immunization-reminding is in Fig. 6.

Fig. 5 Structure diagram of immunization-reminding

Health monitoring model

Why a good mental state and well-built horse suddenly dies? The reasons that have been analyzed are various.

When the breeding and veterinary workers check horses' health examination on weekdays, they often neglected the strong horses. For the above reasons, these behaviors may cause the diseases of the horses, which we may have no time to cure the horses, or no diseases occur.

Stud-farm environment monitoring model

Stud-farm environment monitoring is mainly about the macro conditions' monitoring of racecourse, including monitoring of environment, the quality of drinking water, and the feed quality. Stud-farm environment monitoring regarded the optimization of racecourse environment as the target to improve the living environment of horses. It was necessaryto reduce noise, wind, and pollution of water and so on, to improve the conditions of temperature and humidity of racecourse in order to make the best living environment for horses.

Fig. 6 Implementation of immunization-reminding

Laboratory monitoring model

Laboratory monitoring is focused on the micro conditions of living environment for horses, reducing the occurrence of disease from the source. It includes the concentration of harmful gases and bacteria in the air, the power of hydrogen of drinking water, the content of harmful substances, microorganisms, such as bacteria and parasites, and it monitors whether the ratio of various nutrition in feed reached the standard and whether the ratio of harmful substances exceeded the standard.

Horses' monitoring model

Horses' monitoring model has five major functions, horses overall monitoring, physiological and biochemical monitoring, diagnostic monitoring, immunization monitoring, and parasite monitoring. Horse overall monitoring module includes 12 kinds of daily indexes and four production performance indexes. Physiological and biochemical monitoring contains 20 kinds of blood physiological indexes, 16 kinds of blood biochemical indexes, and 10 kinds of urine test index. Immunization monitoring can monitor antibody levels of horses about three more important diseases than others. Parasite monitoring can regularly test 16 kinds of the parasites. Various indicators of health monitoring system need to collect all the data from different departments. Some data could be obtained on the spot by breeder and veterinary, others could be obtained through a variety of the related testing instruments by laboratory staff. Horse overall monitoring takes daily performance and production performance as the index to monitor the daily health state of horses. It can not only provide strong basis for managers to make decisions, but also be regarded as the preconditions for veterinarians for clinical diagnosis of diseases. Physiological and biochemical monitoring is to monitor the physiological state of horses with the indexes of physiology and biochemistry of horses' blood and state of urine. Diagnostic monitoring is tomonitor with the indexes of horse breath frequency, heart rate, temperature, cardiac sounds, abdominal murmur and breath sounds and so on, which providesbasis for clinical diagnosis of diseases for veterinarians. Immunization monitoring takes the antibody level in vivo of horses as the indicators and monitors the immunization state of horses when the immunization reminding function works to make sure the immunization process going timely and effectively. Parasite monitoring is to monitor the parasite regularly with the index of common parasitic in stud-farm to reduce the incidence of disease.

Inquiry and statistics of health monitoring model

Inquiry and statistics of health monitoring model can help to search and count the monitoring information for racecourse and health state of horses. The inquiry of health monitoring information can make it convenient to search the available classified information effectively for managers and veterinarians. The statistics of health monitoring information involved singlecondition statistic for live monitoring of racecourse and multi-conditions statistic for horse health monitoring. Managers and veterinarians can fill a vacancy leak in the daily work according to the reflection of the statistical graphs.

System management

System management module includes two sub modules: users' registration and login and users' permission setting. The latter is about permission setting for different users in stud-farm, which makes sure that workers attend their own duties in case the information is input chaotically and wrongly. While the former is that the system provides the users with a way to fill in the information as well as corresponding permissions to use the system.

Discussion

In recent years, people pay close attention to the immunization prevention and health monitoring. In terms of horse breeding, the immunization prevention and health monitoring can reduce the development of horses' disease. According to the survey, there is still a big gap in the current level of livestock information technology between China and developed countries (Zhou et al., 2009). Therefore, it has become essential to accelerate the information construction of livestock production. Information technology can be used in livestock production to give related monitoring and forecast that is immunization warning. Information monitoring and early warning can also provide China with data for reference so that China can give overall guidance and allocate resources effectively (Zhang, 2002). Epidemic disease is an important factor to restrict the development of animal husbandry. While methods of the intensive farming intensify and become large-scale means gradually, the immunization against infectious diseases is even more important. The vaccine is a powerful weapon against infectious diseases. Compared with other livestock, infectious diseases of horses are less, such as horse tetanus, infectious anemia in horses, and horse strangles. Computer application to veterinary practice has become an irresistible trend. Veterinary practice without the participation of the computer can not be managed properly and efficiently in the future. Diagnosis and treatment of animal diseases can not be implemented (Wang et al., 2002). The design and implementation of the stud-farm immunization management system have been studied with VB.NET of Visual Studio 2008 development platform. In the year of 2006, Thammi and Sudhakar developed "poultry expert system" by using Visual Basic 6.0 and the database of Access. It included disease, bio-security, management in summer, instructions of drugs and so on. In the same year, Wu et al. (2006) developed the modern dairy farm management system assisted breeding by using Visual FoxPro9.0 development. This software prominent place is assessed to achieve linear size, the methods of image management and the implementation of assisted breeding. Thus, it is feasible that immunization andhealth monitoring combined with the computer technology will be applied to daily management in studfarm. Animal health monitoring management is independent link to promote animal healthy. The management of health monitoring has implemented its functionality to monitor stud-farm environment and horses' health status. The management system of the stud-farm was built with .NET technology and designed according to N-tier architecture. The system has powerful features and scalability, and the components used by the system can be reusable (Wang et al., 2011; Luo, 2006). Computers are used as a link between veterinary staff and software database. In the management of daily immunization and health monitoring in stud-farm, this software will give relevant hint and guidance to veterinarians in order to keep daily work going timely and effectively. The nature of the computer (artificial intelligence) is thinking simulation. This simulation can replace part of thinking ability even more than the human brain. Artificial intelligence is an effective extension of the human brains, and it amplifies the capabilities of human intelligence. The relationship between artificial intelligence and the human brains are interrelated and mutually reinforced (Xiao et al., 2007). The software database contains immune basic information database of horses, health monitoring database of horses and stud-farm management secondary database. Though these databases have different tasks, they carry out their duties. These databases exist to contact each other, so that they can complete their tasks combined with each other. The software will play a role to achieve functional results when the function of immunization function and health monitoring function has achieved. This software could not only satisfy the need of studfarm health monitoring, but also implement the functionality of immunization management. While using this software, veterinarians need to input basic immune information in the immune information-input module first, and then save it to the background database for the operation of query of immunization information, immunization statistics and immunization reminding. China livestock disease prevention information management platform is improved further and needs to enhance the level of modern management. We should improve the utilization management of platform effectively; thereby the level of modern management for information data will be enhanced. The establishment of stud-farm daily management system makes the large-scale, digital and intelligent immunization management and health monitoring, and improves work efficiency of workers. If horses are immunized timely, immunity of the horses will be strengthened that can increase the economic benefits of the studfarm. The stud-farm daily management system could implement racecourse normal operation and monitor effectively all the menacing factors which include the human factor, environment factor and the horse itself factor. The application of this system can improve the horse breeding management, so as to improve the level of horses' breeding in China. This system lays the foundation for the development of Chinese equestrian foreshadowing.

Conclusions

The development of the stud-farm daily management system based on C/S structure could be applied into real time monitoring for immunization management and health status of horses. According to the procedure of daily management program, users could finish the management of immunization and health monitoring effectively and record the appropriate data with the help of software. The software would carry on the statistics and hint in the key aspects of the immune.

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S815.9

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1006-8104(2014)-03-0050-10

Received 10 January 2014

Supported by 12th Five-year Science and Technology Plan in Rural Areas (2012BAD46B00)

Luan Hong-liang (1989- ), male, Master, engaged in the research of veterinary informatics. E-mail: liangliangkt@163.com

* Corresponding author. Xiao Jian-hua, associate professor, engaged in the research of veterinary informatics. E-mail: 66229894@qq.com