AgScent

Sniffing Out Livestock Health

April 27, 2025

What if diagnosing livestock health was as simple as checking their breath?

Well, now it’s possible

This week’s company is using ground-breaking breath sensing technology to deliver a non-invasive, efficient, accurate, and at point-of-care (POC) livestock diagnostic testing.

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THE BIG PICTURE

Farmers are always looking for faster, easier ways to spot illness in their animals.

Instead of using invasive tests that stress animals and take time, a new option is gaining ground: breath analysis with nano-sensors.

These tiny sensors can detect early signs of disease just by analyzing the air animals exhale. That means no needles, no stress, and faster action.

This is part of a much bigger shift in livestock farming.

As operations grow and consumer expectations rise, there’s mounting pressure to monitor animal health proactively, not reactively. That’s fueling growth in both diagnostics and sensor tech.

The numbers back it up

The veterinary diagnostics market is expected to double from $2.55B in 2024 to $5.2B by 2034. (Source)
Breath sensor nanotech is also growing. expected to go from $1.19B in 2019 to $3.31B by 2030. (Source)
Animal health diagnostics is expected to grow by $2.1B between 2025–2029. (Source)

Other players in the space

CowManager is focused on real-time health and fertility tracking.
Cynomys offers IoT for smart livestock farming.
Optiweight provides real-time, remote livestock weighing solutions
Chipsafer tracks movement and behavior remotely via sensors.

What sets breath sensors apart is their potential for early, accurate, non-invasive diagnostics. A serious advantage when scale, speed, and animal welfare all matter.

What's coming next?

Future nano-sensors will detect more disease markers and offer deeper insights.
Their use will expand beyond things like pregnancy detection into respiratory, metabolic, and infectious diseases.
On the consumer side, better monitoring leads to healthier animals, which translates to safer, more sustainable food.
AI will help translate complex data into simple decisions, even for non-expert farmers

THE ESSENCE

How does it work?

It sounds futuristic, but the idea is simple.

When a cow breathes out, it releases tiny chemical signals called VOCs (volatile organic compounds). These change based on the animal’s health, like a chemical fingerprint.

Agscent uses nano-sensors (developed from NASA tech!) to “read” those VOCs and tell farmers what’s going on inside the animal.

For pregnancy checks, the whole process takes less than a minute:

The farmer collects a breath sample.
The nano-sensors look for VOCs that only show up in pregnant cows.
The results show up right on a mobile app.

The same system can also spot other diseases and track emissions. All by analyzing breath.

The problems they’re solving

No more invasive tests – No stress, no injury. Breath tests replace rectal palpation and vaginal exams.
Faster answers – Detects pregnancy 2–4 weeks earlier than traditional methods.
Cheaper – Farmers can test animals themselves and skip the vet visits.
More sustainable – Tracks methane levels so farmers can manage emissions.
Fully connected – The app integrates with farm management systems for easier decision-making.

The products

Agscent Breath

Early pregnancy detection (as soon as 16–18 days post-insemination).
Non-invasive and farmer-operated.
Cuts costs and reduces animal stress.

Agscent Air

MPortable unit that measures methane and CO₂ in real time.
Provides real-time greenhouse gas (GHG) data at individual animal or herd levels.
Helps farmers track and potentially reduce their environmental impact.

(Click here for technical specification)

Unique value proposition

Early and non-invasive – Detect pregnancy faster with zero stress to the animal.
One system, many uses – Same tech can handle disease detection and emission tracking.
NASA-grade sensors – Their tech is space-tested and highly reliable.
Saves time and money – No waiting for vet appointments.
Boosts animal welfare – No poking, no prodding—just a breath.

THE BUSINESS

Industry: Biotechnology Research / Livestock Health
Headquarters: Carwoola, New South Wales
Year founded: 2017
Funding: $14.4M (Pitchbook)
Investors: Mandalay VC, Flying Fox Ventures, Better Food Ventures, and others.
Business model: Agscent operates a dual revenue model: hardware sales of their Breath and Air devices to livestock producers, complemented by subscription-based data analytics services. They partner with NASA and CSIRO, targeting cattle farmers initially with plans to expand to other livestock species and diagnostic applications.
Traction: Agscent won the Pitch in the Paddock competition at Beef 2024, secured $660,000 in Australian Government funding through the Entrepreneurs' Programme, and has established partnerships with industry supporters, government entities, and pastoral companies while actively participating in key agrifood tech events.
Website: agscent.com
Socials: LinkedIn

Founder profile

Dr. Bronwyn Darlington founded Agscent in 2017, bringing 30+ years of cross-industry experience and a PhD in Economics. A social entrepreneur passionate about global poverty and environmental preservation, she developed Agscent's vision while teaching at the University of Sydney, connecting space and medical technologies with agricultural challenges.

Want to learn more?

Startup NASA Feature Series: Agscent (Youtube)
BEEF 2024 AgScent Pitch + Q&A (Youtube)
Agscent, revolutionising agricultural monitoring (Innovation News Network)

THE TAKEAWAY

Great things

One core platform, many options - Their nano-sensor tech can expand to new diseases (like BRD) and even other species (pigs, sheep).
Perfect timing - As sustainability reporting ramps up, Agscent helps farmers get ahead of the curve on emissions tracking.
Strategic partnerships - Collaborations with NASA (for sensor technology) and CSIRO (for R&D) adds big credibility and access to world-class expertise. This speeds up innovation.

This may cause problems

Scaling up is tricky - Making precise nano-sensors at large volumes is tough and could limit growth.
Regulations vary - Different rules by region could delay market entry.
Tech still developing - Some disease detection (like BRD) needs more data and stronger models to work reliably.