Technology and responsibility: a discussion of underexamined risks and concerns in Precision Livestock Farming

Werkheiser, Ian

doi:10.1093/af/vfz056

Cited by 41 publications

(40 citation statements)

References 15 publications

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“…While their potential is promising, the use of these new technologies also raises ethical concerns, such as their potential impact on the human-animal relationship, the objectification of animals, the notion of care and farmers' identity as animal keepers (Bos et al, 2018;Werkheiser, 2018Werkheiser, , 2020. The humananimal relationship is an important aspect which can influence both animal welfare and productivity.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exploring the Potential of Precision Livestock Farming Technologies to Help Address Farm Animal Welfare

2021

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The rise in the demand for animal products due to demographic and dietary changes has exacerbated difficulties in addressing societal concerns related to the environment, human health, and animal welfare. As a response to this challenge, Precision Livestock Farming (PLF) technologies are being developed to monitor animal health and welfare parameters in a continuous and automated way, offering the opportunity to improve productivity and detect health issues at an early stage. However, ethical concerns have been raised regarding their potential to facilitate the management of production systems that are potentially harmful to animal welfare, or to impact the human-animal relationship and farmers' duty of care. Using the Five Domains Model (FDM) as a framework, the aim is to explore the potential of PLF to help address animal welfare and to discuss potential welfare benefits and risks of using such technology. A variety of technologies are identified and classified according to their type [sensors, bolus, image or sound based, Radio Frequency Identification (RFID)], their development stage, the species they apply to, and their potential impact on welfare. While PLF technologies have promising potential to reduce the occurrence of diseases and injuries in livestock farming systems, their current ability to help promote positive welfare states remains limited, as technologies with such potential generally remain at earlier development stages. This is likely due to the lack of evidence related to the validity of positive welfare indicators as well as challenges in technology adoption and development. Finally, the extent to which welfare can be improved will also strongly depend on whether management practices will be adapted to minimize negative consequences and maximize benefits to welfare.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exploring the Potential of Precision Livestock Farming Technologies to Help Address Farm Animal Welfare

2021

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“…For example, flock-level analyses of visual images [ 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 ] and flock sounds [ 11 , 12 ] deliver useful information on the state of the flock as a whole, but not on individual animals. However, such group level approaches to welfare assessment have been challenged on the grounds that they overlook the most crucial element of all—the welfare of individual animals [ 13 , 14 ]. The aim of this paper is to show that, properly used, automated group-level measures of welfare can contribute to the assessment of individual bird welfare, even without specifically identifying individuals.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Groups and Individuals: Optical Flow Patterns of Broiler Chicken Flocks Are Correlated with the Behavior of Individual Birds

Gebhardt-Henrich

Stratmann

Dawkins

2021

Animals

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Group level measures of welfare flocks have been criticized on the grounds that they give only average measures and overlook the welfare of individual animals. However, we here show that the group-level optical flow patterns made by broiler flocks can be used to deliver information not just about the flock averages but also about the proportion of individuals in different movement categories. Mean optical flow provides information about the average movement of the whole flock while the variance, skew and kurtosis quantify the variation between individuals. We correlated flock optical flow patterns with the behavior and welfare of a sample of 16 birds per flock in two runway tests and a water (latency-to-lie) test. In the runway tests, there was a positive correlation between the average time taken to complete the runway and the skew and kurtosis of optical flow on day 28 of flock life (on average slow individuals came from flocks with a high skew and kurtosis). In the water test, there was a positive correlation between the average length of time the birds remained standing and the mean and variance of flock optical flow (on average, the most mobile individuals came from flocks with the highest mean). Patterns at the flock level thus contain valuable information about the activity of different proportions of the individuals within a flock.

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“…For example, flock level analyses of visual images [6–10] and flock sounds [11, 12] deliver useful information on the state of the flock as a whole, not on individual animals. However, such group level approaches to welfare assessment have been criticized on the grounds that they overlook the most crucial element of all – the welfare of individual animals [13, 14]. The aim of this paper is to show that even without specifically identifying individuals, group level methods of welfare assessment can still contribute directly to the welfare of individual animals.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Welfare at group and individual level: optical flow patterns of broiler chicken flocks are correlated with the behaviour of individual birds

Gebhardt-Henrich

Stratmann

Dawkins

2021

Preprint

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Group level measures of welfare such as the optical flow patterns made by broiler chicken flocks have been criticized on the grounds that they give only average measures and overlook the welfare of individual animals. However, we here show that by using the skew and kurtosis in addition to the mean, optical flow patterns can be used to deliver information not just about the flock average but also about the proportion of individuals in different movement categories. We correlated flock optical flow patterns with the behaviour of a sample of 16 birds per flock in two runway tests and a water (latency-to-lie) test. In the runway tests, there was a positive correlation between the time taken to complete the runway and the skew and kurtosis of optical flow on day 28 of flock life (slow individuals came from flocks with a high skew and kurtosis). In the water test, there was a positive correlation between the length of time the birds remained standing and the mean and variance of flock optical flow (the most mobile individuals came from flocks with the highest mean). Patterns at flock level thus contain valuable information about the welfare of the individuals that compose the flock.Simple SummaryTechnology on farms potentially brings benefits of improved animal health, welfare and productivity as well as reduction in disease, waste and environmental impact. However, it also raises public concern about the welfare of individual animals, particularly when applied to large groups such as broiler (meat) chickens. We here address this issue by showing that camera technology can both provide life-long continuous monitoring of the welfare of whole flocks and also give crucial information about the individuals making up the flock. The cameras detect variation between individuals and are also sensitive to birds moving abnormally. By testing birds individually, we show that slow-moving birds tended to come from flocks that moved slowly overall and showed large variation between individuals whereas fast-moving birds were more likely to come from more active flocks that moved more uniformly. Properly used, camera technology can thus monitor the welfare of flocks continuously throughout their lives while reflecting the behaviour of individual birds.

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Technology and responsibility: a discussion of underexamined risks and concerns in Precision Livestock Farming

Cited by 41 publications

References 15 publications

Exploring the Potential of Precision Livestock Farming Technologies to Help Address Farm Animal Welfare

Exploring the Potential of Precision Livestock Farming Technologies to Help Address Farm Animal Welfare

Groups and Individuals: Optical Flow Patterns of Broiler Chicken Flocks Are Correlated with the Behavior of Individual Birds

Welfare at group and individual level: optical flow patterns of broiler chicken flocks are correlated with the behaviour of individual birds

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