Use of satellite images for geographical localization of livestock holdings in Brazil.

Google Earth(®) provides free access to satellite images and has been used in several areas that require cartographic information. The present study assessed the inconsistencies between geo-referencing of livestock premises by GPS and the acquisition of geographic coordinates by remote sensing (RS) images provided by Google Earth(®) in the Brazilian states of Bahia, Distrito Federal, Minas Gerais and Parana. The overall mean and standard deviation of the distances in the study were 30.98±19.89 m. The mean distance differences between the two techniques were, for these states, 37.20±19.75 m, 28.38±17.38 m, 31.61±15.72 m, 28.43±24.30 m, respectively. Despite the fact that there is variation between the geo-referencing points using GPS and RS, geographical localization of health inspections should be useful as long as the errors between the results of the two methodologies are considered.