Technology and Poultry Welfare

Sassi, Neila Ben; Averós, Xavier; Estévez, Inma

doi:10.3390/ani6100062

Cited by 77 publications

(55 citation statements)

References 93 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…New technologies could potentially disrupt the current management practices of farms and management of broiler welfare. Additionally, the poultry meat production chain offers ideal conditions for the application of new technologies, since its management is very similar around the world: the governance structure is vertical, and its cycle of production is relatively short [109].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

How Are Information Technologies Addressing Broiler Welfare? A Systematic Review Based on the Welfare Quality® Assessment

et al. 2020

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This systematic review aims to explore how information technologies (ITs) are currently used to monitor the welfare of broiler chickens. The question posed for the review was “which ITs are related to welfare and how do they monitor this for broilers?”. The Welfare Quality® (WQ) protocol for broiler assessment was utilized as a framework to analyse suitable articles. A total of 57 studies were reviewed wherein all principles of broiler welfare were addressed. The “good health” principle was the main criteria found to be addressed by ITs and IT-based studies (45.6% and 46.1%, respectively), whereas the least observed principle was “good feeding” (8.8%). This review also classified ITs and IT-based studies by their utilization (location, production system, variable measured, aspect of production, and experimental/practical use). The results show that the current focus of ITs is on problems with conventional production systems and that less attention has been given to free-range systems, slaughterhouses, and supply chain issues. Given the valuable results evidenced by the exploitation of ITs, their use in broiler production should continue to be encouraged with more attention given to farmer adoption strategies.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

How Are Information Technologies Addressing Broiler Welfare? A Systematic Review Based on the Welfare Quality® Assessment

et al. 2020

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…More recently constructed buildings may also be more likely to employ technology to monitor animal well-being or other farm conditions. More research is needed to understand the implications of handing more responsibility for animal welfare to machines as we head towards greater application of precision livestock farming systems (Ben Sassi et al 2016;Wathes 2009;Wathes et al 2008).…”

Section: Countrymentioning

confidence: 99%

The challenge of incorporating animal welfare in a social life cycle assessment model of European chicken production

Tallentire

Edwards

Limbergen

et al. 2018

Int J Life Cycle Assess

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Purpose There is increasing public concern over standards of farm animal welfare, yet the majority of sustainability studies of livestock have thus far focused only on environmental performance and profitability. Where social analysis has been carried out, there has yet to be a consistent methodology developed that incorporates animal welfare into social life cycle assessment (S-LCA). A framework was developed to assess animal welfare, using conventional broiler chicken meat production in Europe as a case in point. Methods Data were collected on stocking density, mortality, and carcass condemnation rate from conventional chicken meat production systems in Europe. The quantitative risk of each welfare indicator was characterised in accordance with the Social Hotspots Database methodology based on best to worst farm performances, i.e. quartiles of the data collected for each indicator. The overall animal welfare impact was assessed using a weighted sum methodology, which accounted for the level of risk animals were exposed to for each indicator and the animal lifespan. From this, a Social Hotspot Index (SHI) could be calculated for the animal welfare impact associated with the functional unit, which was 1 kg of chicken meat production. The animal welfare impact of four European countries was then compared. Results and discussion The countries assessed displayed a range of values for overall animal welfare impact; the country with the best animal welfare had a SHI for animal welfare impact of 0.14, whilst the worst had a SHI for animal welfare impact of 0.72. Farms that kept more birds per building had an increased overall animal welfare impact. Animal welfare, determined by negative welfare indicators, was worse in more recently established farm buildings due to increased flock size. Conclusions A methodology that incorporates animal welfare indicators into S-LCA was developed that is both scalable and related to welfare assessment frameworks. Although only some specific negative welfare indicators were considered here, the methodology could easily accommodate additional negative indicators and even positive welfare indicators as advancements are made in the understanding of animal welfare. Hence, this study provides a springboard for further development of S-LCA, animal welfare assessment and, ultimately, improved animal welfare in livestock systems.

show abstract

“…Furthermore, advanced data processing techniques make it possible to analyse animal behaviour continuously, automatically, accurately and in real time (Valletta et al, 2017;Van Hertem et al, 2017). Ben Sassi et al (2016) reviewed the sensors and technologies for poultry welfare monitoring based on the literature prior to 2015. The review emphasised that the monitoring technologies could be implemented at the commercial level but did not analyse the difficulties of commercial application.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Review: Automated techniques for monitoring the behaviour and welfare of broilers and laying hens: towards the goal of precision livestock farming

Ren

et al. 2020

Animal

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

There is increasing public concern about poultry welfare; the quality of animal welfare is closely related to the quality of livestock products and the health of consumers. Good animal welfare promotes the healthy growth of poultry, which can reduce the disease rate and improve the production quality and capacity. As behaviour responses are an important expression of welfare, the study of behaviour is a simple and non-invasive method to assess animal welfare. The use of modern technology offers the possibility to monitor the behaviour of broilers and laying hens in a continuous and automated way. This paper reviews the latest technologies used for monitoring the behaviour of broilers and laying hens under both experimental conditions and commercial applications and discusses the potential of developing a precision livestock farming (PLF) system. The techniques that are presented and discussed include sound analysis, which can be an online tool to automatically monitor poultry behaviour non-invasively at the group level; wireless, wearable sensors with radio-frequency identification devices, which can automatically identify individual chickens, track the location and movement of individuals in real time and quantify some behavioural traits accordingly and image processing technology, which can be considered a direct tool for measuring behaviours, especially activity behaviours and disease early warning. All of these technologies can monitor and analyse poultry behaviour, at the group level or individual level, on commercial farms. However, the popularity and adoption of these technologies has been hampered by the logistics of applying them to thousands and tens of thousands of birds on commercial farms. This review discusses the advantages and disadvantages of these techniques in commercial applications and presents evidence that they provide potential tools to automatically monitor the behaviours of broilers and laying hens on commercial farms. However, there still has a long way to go to develop a PLF system to detect and predict abnormal situations.

show abstract

Technology and Poultry Welfare

Cited by 77 publications

References 93 publications

How Are Information Technologies Addressing Broiler Welfare? A Systematic Review Based on the Welfare Quality® Assessment

How Are Information Technologies Addressing Broiler Welfare? A Systematic Review Based on the Welfare Quality® Assessment

The challenge of incorporating animal welfare in a social life cycle assessment model of European chicken production

Review: Automated techniques for monitoring the behaviour and welfare of broilers and laying hens: towards the goal of precision livestock farming

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About