What is the value of milk biomarkers?

Milk biomarkers can detect SARA in individual animals but, do they provide value to the farmer? Or, can the farmer make better decisions with information from biomarkers than without? And, what are the uncertainties that determine the value? We used the test characteristics of 2 biomarkers, one based on FPR, another based on FAP. We used available data on prevalence, disease cost and treatment cost to construct a distribution that reflects their uncertain values. We found that: In most cases, there is no value from using biomarkers. Not monitoring is better than monitoring with FPR or FAP biomarkers. Using the FAP biomarker is always a better strategy than using the FPR biomarker
(in spite of its worse sensitivity but thanks to its better specificity). The results suggest that precision monitoring systems (PMS) have an economic value (1) for health and production issues with medium prevalence; and (2) when treating the issue can lead to more than marginal improvements in economic performance per animal. When one or more of these conditions are not met, the window in which PMS have an economic value narrows. This model can aid precision livestock tool developers to estimate the value of information provided by their tools under investigation and to identify the conditions under which such tools will provide the highest benefits.