Precision Livestock Farming in Swine Welfare: A Review for Swine Practitioners

Abstract

The burgeoning research and applications of technological advances are launching the development of precision livestock farming. Through sensors (cameras, microphones and accelerometers), images, sounds and movements are combined with algorithms to non-invasively monitor animals to detect their welfare and predict productivity. In turn, this remote monitoring of livestock can provide quantitative and early alerts to situations of poor welfare requiring the stockperson’s attention. While swine practitioners’ skills include translation of pig data entry into pig health and well-being indices, many do not yet have enough familiarity to advise their clients on the adoption of precision livestock farming practices. This review, intended for swine veterinarians and specialists, (1) includes an introduction to algorithms and machine learning, (2) summarizes current literature on relevant sensors and sensor network systems, and drawing from industry pig welfare audit criteria, (3) explains how these applications can be used to improve swine welfare and meet current pork production stakeholder expectations. Swine practitioners, by virtue of their animal and client advocacy roles, interpretation of benchmarking data, and stewardship in regulatory and traceability programs, can play a broader role as advisors in the transfer of precision livestock farming technology, and its implications to their clients.

Blockchain Technology for Sustainable Supply Chain Management: A Systematic Literature Review and a Classification Framework

“…Integration of blockchain in the supply chain architecture can lead to a more transparent, reliable, authentic, and secure system [36]. Data-driven management, which provides transparency of crucial information like production practices, is a big issue in pig production [37]. Blockchain technology allows easy implementation of transparency features among multiple parties by compilation and verification of information [38].…”

Large-Scale Phenotyping of Livestock Welfare in Commercial Production Systems: A New Frontier in Animal Breeding

“…The technological devices used include sensors such as cameras, microphones to capture vocalizations, thermometers, automated feeding and milking systems, automatic scales to measure body weight and lean-fat ratios, milk spectral data, electrodes to detect skin conductivity and heart rate, and accelerometers (Vranken and Berckmans, 2017;Benjamin and Yik, 2019;Halachmi et al, 2019). In this section, we describe phenotyping technologies that can be (or have been) used to assess animal welfare and potentially incorporated in genetic or genomic evaluation schemes in commercial livestock systems.…”

“…Previous reviews have focused on the use of precision technologies for a variety of purposes, especially on-farm management (Neethirajan, 2017;Neethirajan et al, 2017;Vranken and Berckmans, 2017;Croney et al, 2018b;Benjamin and Yik, 2019;Halachmi et al, 2019). The current review, expands this scope by focusing on the use of precision technologies for selective breeding to enhance animal welfare in commercial livestock production, with a focus on terrestrial species.…”

Emerging coronavirus diseases and future perspectives

“…Technological advancements such as wearable technologies and biosensors make it possible to manage the health status of livestock and birds [43][44][45]. In addition to this precision livestock forming technology could also help to manage and monitor animal's status health through providing a continuous picture of health in real time and enabling fast mediations that benefit the safety of both animals and consumers [46,47].…”