Poultry Livestock Sensory System (PouLSS)
Lead Research Organisation:
Newcastle University
Department Name: Institute of Neuroscience
Abstract
The aim is to create an all-in-one environmental indicator and animal welfare monitoring sensory system. It will transmit data in a wireless way and will provide early warnings for compromised welfare with recommended actions and will mitigate productivity losses. The implementation of the sensor will augment existing legislative and Industry Assurance requirements; providing real-time animal welfare monitoring it will create greater levels of Assurance to the consumer through Certification. This innovative product is a solution in direct response to growing consumer concerns about animal welfare and consequent health and safety of meat products, which has resulted in increasing regulations affecting poultry production livestock rearing conditions. Producers to now have to balance meeting regulations with increasing production demands, whilst maintaining a healthy profit.
Technical Summary
Raising poultry for meat is a large industry which is highly regulated by government and quality assurance bodies, due to consumer concerns about animal welfare and health and safety of meat products. To help farmers meet such regulations a consortium has designed a product to monitor the welfare of chickens and the environmental conditions of barns in which they are housed. The consortium aims to turn the design of this all-in-one environmental and welfare monitoring system into a tried and tested product. The product will help farmers more closely monitor and respond to changes in chickens' environment or welfare. It will improve existing legal and quality assurance requirements by providing real-time monitoring and will provide up-to-date advice to farmers on how they can create better more productive environments for their chickens. This innovative product will help farmers to more easily comply with regulations, whilst improving welfare and maintaining a healthy profit.
Planned Impact
The project addresses the clear business opportunity of animal welfare (AW) and environmental paramater (EP) poultry precision livestock farming (PLF), providing producers with solutions to minimise losses (Cokery et al., 2013). Translating successful scientific studies in thermography, video image analysis and vocalisation into robust commercial products will benefit producers, consumers and industry. 70% of consumers are concerned with AW (BBFAW, 2012); 80% of ethical consumers are willing to pay more for certification. Hartman Group (2012) predicts increasing AW Certified product sales. Project industry data shall enable 'smart supply chains' causing better assurance compliance rates whilst reducing the 'paper cost' and resulting environmental impact of producing food (Wagner et al., 2002; SITPRO 2008). The global agricultural sensor market, shall reach $1.46 billion by 2018 with the growth of the Internet of Things and increased welfare, health and disease legislation (Markets and Markets, 2011). UK public fund investment would enable gains in this market, where Germany, the US and Asia are leaders. The current market opportunity for the final products sales is £384m (6 sensors ea@£200 p/barn-barns calculated from:FAO STAT, 2014). Pressure groups (WP8) and consortium members shall establish global distributor routes. Initial trial sales will begin 3 months prior project completion in the UK. Further hardware sales will occur in: UK year 1 (£500k),EU expansion year 2 (£1.3m), Australia & US expansion Year 3 (£2.6mill),worldwide expansion year 4 (£4.8mill). Year 2 (post project) sales will be further enhanced with software, Assurance Certification and Licencing models. Expansion from poultry to all livestock shall be investigated. This and GGL's go to market strategy across its expanding global distributor base shall be fuly funded by GGL, and supported by all other consortium members.The project will result in a minimum of 25 new employment opportunities across all partners, and opportunities for multiple patent applications.
The primary beneficiaries and users of this research are commercial poultry producers and those involved with this supply chain. By testing the technology in an existing farm which has strong links with J.Sainburys, there is already a clear link to the complete supply chain. The economic impact would be passed on to those who used the sensor developed as it would allow earlier detection and therefore intervention of welfare issues which also translate to increased productivity. Economic losses in IPPU would be abated as early stress within poultry flocks would be detected and responded to. A sensor system will reduce wastage associated with commercial poultry production by enabling poultry producers and retailers to respond to productivity reductions and wastage. A more efficient system which loses fewer chickens to pre-slaughter mortality reasons would mean fewer animals are needed, which, in addition to having inherent positive ethical value, could also assist with reducing CO2 emissions from IPPUs. There would be a benefit to retailers and to wider society to allow better monitoring of chicken welfare and to better provide for consumer led choices to purchase high welfare poultry products. Through enabling retailer awareness of animal welfare standards within producer barns, high end value retailers are able to, not only communicate these results confidently to consumers, but also make knowledgeable choices about which producers to use. This shall further increase the opportunity for farmers to respond to animal welfare standards within their production barns as retailers are able to knowledgeably choose their producers based on these standards.
The UoN is a leading academic institution within the Agri-food industry and this actively attracts UK and overseas students. Involvement in this high profile project will further promote capability, which will support student recruitment.
The primary beneficiaries and users of this research are commercial poultry producers and those involved with this supply chain. By testing the technology in an existing farm which has strong links with J.Sainburys, there is already a clear link to the complete supply chain. The economic impact would be passed on to those who used the sensor developed as it would allow earlier detection and therefore intervention of welfare issues which also translate to increased productivity. Economic losses in IPPU would be abated as early stress within poultry flocks would be detected and responded to. A sensor system will reduce wastage associated with commercial poultry production by enabling poultry producers and retailers to respond to productivity reductions and wastage. A more efficient system which loses fewer chickens to pre-slaughter mortality reasons would mean fewer animals are needed, which, in addition to having inherent positive ethical value, could also assist with reducing CO2 emissions from IPPUs. There would be a benefit to retailers and to wider society to allow better monitoring of chicken welfare and to better provide for consumer led choices to purchase high welfare poultry products. Through enabling retailer awareness of animal welfare standards within producer barns, high end value retailers are able to, not only communicate these results confidently to consumers, but also make knowledgeable choices about which producers to use. This shall further increase the opportunity for farmers to respond to animal welfare standards within their production barns as retailers are able to knowledgeably choose their producers based on these standards.
The UoN is a leading academic institution within the Agri-food industry and this actively attracts UK and overseas students. Involvement in this high profile project will further promote capability, which will support student recruitment.
People |
ORCID iD |
| Lucy Asher (Principal Investigator) |
Publications
Friel M
(2016)
Acoustic signalling reflects personality in a social mammal.
in Royal Society open science
Asher L
(2017)
Application of Survival Analysis and Multistate Modeling to Understand Animal Behavior: Examples from Guide Dogs.
in Frontiers in veterinary science
James C
(2018)
The effect of supplementary ultraviolet wavelengths on broiler chicken welfare indicators.
in Applied animal behaviour science
Rufener C
(2018)
Finding hens in a haystack: Consistency of movement patterns within and across individual laying hens maintained in large groups.
in Scientific reports
Friel M
(2019)
Positive and negative contexts predict duration of pig vocalisations
in Scientific Reports
Herborn KA
(2020)
Spectral entropy of early-life distress calls as an iceberg indicator of chicken welfare.
in Journal of the Royal Society, Interface
James C
(2020)
The effect of supplementary ultraviolet wavelengths on the performance of broiler chickens.
in Poultry science
Ogbonna A
(2022)
Effect of Dietary Vitamin D3 and Ultraviolet B Light on Growth Performance, Blood Serum Parameters, Gut Histology, and Welfare Indicators of Broilers
in Frontiers in Animal Science
| Description | The overall aim of the Poultry Livestock Sensor System (PouLSS) was to develop an all-in-one environmental indicator and animal welfare (AW) monitoring sensory system; with wireless data transmitting, analytics, User Interface (UI), early warnings and recommended actions for intensive poultry production units (IPPU's). The main aims of the project for the academic partner were: 1. To identify behavioural welfare indicators, in pen trials or by correlation with end point welfare assessments on commercial farms. 2. To validate sensors against behavioural and end point welfare indicators. 3. To develop algorithms for GGL to produce welfare sensor combining thermography, vocalisations and/or video images. We have been successful in all three of these aims and due to project findings have focused upon vocalisations as a major indicator of welfare which can be measured automatically using the POULSS. In summary our major achievements are: i) conducted two pen trials both demonstrating that hearing a common vocalisation made by young chicks, the distress call, makes other chicks more responsive to stress and eat/ grow less; ii) developed a methods to automatically monitor feather growth using thermal images; iii) trialled location and position options for acoustic and image based monitoring at a commercial scale research farm; iv) developed tracking methods for chickens from thermal images; v) completed a review of welfare monitoring identifying key industry standard measurements and exploring the potential for automated monitoring within certification schemes; vi) completed a review of potential relationships between environmental parameters and welfare identifying most important environmental parameters to monitor; vii) developed algorithms to automatically monitor distress calls in a commercial poultry shed; viii) conducted a commercial trial where distress calls were automatically measured and validated against growth, mortality and a number of other end point welfare measures; viiii) disseminated research nationally and internationally to a variety of audiences. Together these achievements have provided the basis for measuring welfare automatically using vocalisations within a Poultry Livestock Sensor System. Vocalisations were found to be the best candidate for automated monitoring of welfare; they are measured using acoustic equipment and require relatively low storage space, relatively simple recording equipment and are sensitive to an animal's emotional state. From previous research we knew that one particular vocalisation, the distress call, was made by chicks in anxious and depressed-like emotional states. These calls could be altered by giving anti-anxiety or anti-depressant drugs, so were pharmacologically validated. We wanted to understand how hearing this call might influence other chicken's emotions and conducted two pen trials to investigate further. In the first pen trial we found that when we played distress calls to other chicks, the next day they were less optimistic, they ate less and they showed a thermal response which indicated they were stressed. We also developed methods in this trial to automatically measure feather cover and attempted to manipulate welfare to look for thermal or video based changes which we could develop for monitoring. We were able to develop a method for automatically scoring feather cover using thermal imaging. As a result we obtained BBSRC Impact Acceleration funds for 'Market research of an automated feather cover app'. Differences in behaviour and thermal profile found during pen trial 1 were otherwise too subtle to be able to detect automatically in a commercial environment. Following the pen trial we prepared for measuring thermal images, video footage and vocalisations on a commercial farm. We conducted a trial at a research farm facility, Auchincruive, to investigate different heights and locations for positioning equipment. This was particular informative for the acoustic monitoring equipment, as microphones too close or far from the chickens captured only part of the sound spectrum. We were able to use this information to inform the design of a study for commercial environment. We were able to track chickens using thermal images and customised code written in software MatLab. The code cannot keep track of individuals, but can track movements of chickens as they pass in front of the screen. We were also able to implement optical flow code and to measure clustering from these videos. Next we conducted a review of current practices in welfare monitoring. No welfare monitoring is currently automated for assurance bodies or voluntary schemes. Many schemes base welfare standards on the resources animals have available to them, for example the number of feeders and drinkers, access to enrichment, and space per bird. Other welfare schemes go onto farm and conduct monitoring of birds, typically at the end of the flock and primarily based on basic individual indicators of health and behaviour. Some schemes also collect information from abattoirs which are relevant to health and welfare. These typically do not collect information on enough birds to be completely representative of a flock, but are believed to be a good balance between what is practically feasible and what is ideal. It was identified from this review that end of life monitoring of welfare which is routinely used gives little scope for improving welfare of the current flock. The limitations of current welfare monitoring were: a) they were not representative of the whole flock; b) the early life of chickens was not consistently monitored for welfare. We believe that monitoring of distress vocalisations could address these shortcomings by monitoring a representative number of the flock during early life to allow for changes to be made to improve the welfare of that flock. We conducted a review of environmental parameters and their relationship with animal welfare. Expected relationships between animal welfare indictors and environmental variables which were in scope for measurement in the POULSS system, were identified. Next the plan was to conduct research in a commercial environment, however this was delayed due to a partner change in the project and an outbreak of avian influenza. Instead we used the time to follow up results from pen trial 1 concerning effect of hearing vocalisations. Specifically we wanted to replicate results of playing distress calls to birds over a longer time period and make commercially relevant measurements of growth and long term measurements of stress sensitivity. We conducted a pen trial where we played 2-7 day old chicks distress calls (at a slow and fast rate), or a sound which had acoustic properties of the distress call but didn't sound like a call, or a different type of call (contact calls) which isn't made by chickens in negative emotional states. Our findings supported those from pen trial 1. We found that chicks that had heard distress calls (at a slow rate) grew slower, and as adults were less optimistic in a behavioural test and showed a greater stress response to being isolated using thermal images and number of calls made. This finding confirmed that not only do chicks who are in a negative emotional state make more of these calls, but hearing chicks make these calls also has long term effects of growth and stress responsiveness. Our final study was a commercial research trial. We collected data on health and welfare of 4 barns (20-25000 chickens per barn) for three flocks (providing data on 12 flocks and approximately 300,000 chickens). We recorded acoustics, made video recordings and collected key indictors identified above. We needed to develop an automated way of measuring the distress vocalisations which had been so important in our pen trials. We had different potential techniques lined up to try, based on our previous recordings from Frog Mary Green Farm and the research farm Auchincruive. We manually counted calls from audio files based on the distinctive call shape of distress vocalisations. We were able to identify a number of acoustic parameters which were very basic, which were highly associated with distress calls in early life (the first 4 days after arrival). When chickens first enter the barn this is the primary call that they make. As they settle into their new environment they make this call less frequently. Since few other call types are made by young chicks and the nature of this call, being very loud, we were able to find a number of basic acoustic parameters which could be used to automatically measure distress calls. We found that chicks which distress called more grew less the next day and had higher mortality. We also found that making more distress calls in days 2-4 after arriving in the barn were associated with lower end weight, higher mortality and were associated with a wide range of other negative indicators (DOAs, pododermitis, hock burns). This provides evidence for the first times that measuring welfare on farm using distress calls is possible automatically and is commercially relevant. As far as we are aware, we are the first to be able to measure distress calls on farm and associate these with health and welfare parameters. We have been active in disseminating aspects of the POULSS. We have presented at eleven academic meetings including major international conferences, the International Society for Applied Ethology Congress (in 2017 & 2018) and the Universities Federation for Animal Welfare International Symposium. We have prepared publications to present these findings in scientific papers, but are awaiting an embargo, following a patent application by industrial partners, before we can submit these. We have presented our findings to industry stakeholders at events at Cocklepark Park Farm, including the high industry attended launch of NU farms and CIEL visits, to Avara foods (one of the largest worldwide broiler producers), and at Campden BRI's industry groups meetings. We have engaged in outreach activities at open days, during school visits and summer school activities. We believe we have made significant contributions, both scientifically and in delivering industrially relevant research within this project. The associations found in the commercial trial provide excellent support for using vocalisations for automated monitoring of poultry welfare. We believe we are the first to develop a method for automatically measuring animal emotions in any livestock species. The industry partner will shortly market this as part of their ALISSense system which will clip on to their LED lighting platform which is installed in farms around the world. |
| Exploitation Route | The findings are being incorporated into the design of a chicken welfare sensor by our industrial partners. The findings are communicated with industry through our industrial partner, Campden BRI who provide links between academia, research and the food industry. The eventual goal of the sensor is to assist with welfare monitoring and provision. It will also be possible to develop similar methods for other species or farming contexts and to this end further grants in this area are being explored. |
| Sectors | Agriculture, Food and Drink |
| URL | https://greengage.global/ |
| Description | Three sensor products have been produced which are now on sale to the multi-billion dollar poultry industry by the partner organisation, Greengage. Greengage have market penetration with their patented lighting system ALIS. The sensors products clip on to the same ALIS (Agricultural Lighting Induction System) induction power cable used for lighting in livestock sheds, creating an aerial network of lights and seven sensors looking down on the animals; monitoring critical parameters for welfare, productivity and the environment. The four products are: ALIS Chirpy Sensor improves growth and productivity with acoustic measurements. ALIS Cluster Sensor view flock mobility under any lighting level. ALIS Greenhouse Sensor alerts and data for Ammonia, Carbon Dioxide and humidity. ALIS Ambient Sensor monitor light and temperature. A global licence has been submitted in relation to these products, with the authors of the grant (Asher/Herborn) listed as inventors. https://greengage.global/greengage-press-release-sensors/ |
| Sector | Agriculture, Food and Drink |
| Impact Types | Societal,Economic |
| Description | BBSRC Seeding Catalyst, BBSRC Transforming Food Production Seeding Awards - Proof of Concept - 'Pen side testing - Broiler Pen Side Diagnostics (necrotic enteritis)' |
| Amount | £11,797 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | ISCF-TFP-SA-Newcastle |
| Organisation | Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 12/2018 |
| End | 02/2019 |
| Description | Doctoral Scholarships |
| Amount | £1,050,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | The Leverhulme Trust |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 09/2018 |
| End | 08/2023 |
| Description | FSVO Swiss Federal centre of excellence in the fields of foods..: Evaluating novel methods to evaluate poultry and rabbit housing, welfare and compliance of functional areas using modern, smart farming technology |
| Amount | SFr. 162,852 (CHF) |
| Organisation | Government of Sweden |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | Sweden |
| Start | 02/2019 |
| End | 02/2021 |
| Description | Impacts of stress on brood patch temperature in a wild, incubating bird awarded to Katherine Herborn (researcher on this project now Lecturer at Plymouth University) |
| Amount | £20,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | The Royal Society |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 04/2019 |
| End | 04/2020 |
| Description | International Travel Award Scheme |
| Amount | £3,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 07/2017 |
| End | 11/2017 |
| Description | Newcastle University Business Development fund |
| Amount | £10,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Newcastle University |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 09/2016 |
| End | 01/2017 |
| Description | Newcastle University Research Fellowship |
| Amount | £300,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Newcastle University |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 06/2015 |
| End | 07/2020 |
| Description | Public description The application of animal welfare science theory to key environmental, welfare and industry KPI's to develop a novel diagnostic and prediction service for non-invasive bio surveillance. Providing a decision support tool to support adopt |
| Amount | £146,091 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | KTP 13265 |
| Organisation | Newcastle University |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 03/2023 |
| End | 09/2025 |
| Description | Seeding Catalyst |
| Amount | £16,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 11/2017 |
| End | 01/2018 |
| Description | Why do hens smother? An investigation into the causes and consequences of smothering |
| Amount | £537,066 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | BB/T001747/1 |
| Organisation | Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 08/2019 |
| End | 08/2022 |
| Title | Method for automatic extraction of broiler chicken distress calls from on farm |
| Description | Distress calls are an indicator of anxiety or depression like responses in young chickens. We have developed a method for easily extracting the number of distress calls using basci parameters of the soundscape from on farm. |
| Type Of Material | Physiological assessment or outcome measure |
| Year Produced | 2018 |
| Provided To Others? | No |
| Impact | Not yet. A methods publication is being written |
| Title | Thermal imaging for assessing feather cover |
| Description | We have established that thermal images can be used to assess feather coverage in meat chickens. |
| Type Of Material | Physiological assessment or outcome measure |
| Provided To Others? | No |
| Impact | This method will reduce handling of birds for feather coverage assessment, this has welfare and biosecurity benefits |
| Description | Aposematism and social distress |
| Organisation | Newcastle University |
| Department | Newcastle University Medical School |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Used vocalization recordings made by our team to manipulate state of chicks and increase impact of social distress |
| Collaborator Contribution | Measured responses to aposematic prey of chicks which had been played different vocalizations recordings |
| Impact | Paper in prep |
| Start Year | 2017 |
| Description | Auto-detection of distress vocalisations in laying hens |
| Organisation | FAI Farms Ltd |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Private |
| PI Contribution | Explore the scope for detection of distress vocalisations in laying hens throughdjidoi: (1) Collection of audio data using research-grade microphones in four commercial egg production units at three ages of poultry life. (2) Application of existing algorithms for recognising distress vocalisations to recordings from (1). (3) Modification of existing algorithms for recognising distress calls in broilers to commercial laying hens. (4) Conducting scoping work to identify methods and feasibility of collecting and pre-processing of audio data integrated into the bird box hen mangement system |
| Collaborator Contribution | LAKES EGGS:Access to free range farms for collection of vocalisations ? Access to data collected from farms ; ? Provision of prototype bird boxes on farms which collect ; environmental, weight, feed and water data ? Staff time to help set up data collection on farm and for collaborative meetings; ? Total cost of in-kind contribition: £8750 FAI FARMS: Complete scoping project to assess feasibility and options for integrating vocalisation monitoring into bird box system; ? Access to data collected through prototype bird box hen management system (a collaborative enterprise with Lakes Eggs); ? Staff time for collaborative meetings, data extraction from bird box system and setting up secure data sharing systems for bird box data; ? Access to key figures from producer surveys to guide future application plans ? Total cost of in-kind contribition: £6600 |
| Impact | In this Seeding Catalyst Project we identified the key acoustic attributes required to automatically detect five call types related to different emotional and/or behavioural states in laying hens. Initially we had considered using methods we had already established already for broilers as part of BB/N010361/1, but new techniques were needed because of differences between the calls of broilers and layers. Calls were recorded from two commercial laying hen farms and annotated for different call types. The ability of five machine learning approaches to distinguish call types from one another and from background noise were compared. The Random Forest approach was the best performing with 77% accuracy in detecting five specific call types in laying hens. In addition, during this project we explored the feasibility of incorporating acoustic sensors into new or existing automated monitoring systems, and the potential market for acoustic sensors within the poultry industry. The project forms the basis of a feasibility study for the application of acoustic monitoring for laying hen health and welfare monitoring applications. To further develop this area of research, we have written proposals with the partners of this grant, Lakes Eggs and FAI, for the forthcoming ISCF call and the BBSRC LINK funding. |
| Start Year | 2017 |
| Description | Auto-detection of distress vocalisations in laying hens |
| Organisation | The Lakes Free Range Egg Co |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Explore the scope for detection of distress vocalisations in laying hens throughdjidoi: (1) Collection of audio data using research-grade microphones in four commercial egg production units at three ages of poultry life. (2) Application of existing algorithms for recognising distress vocalisations to recordings from (1). (3) Modification of existing algorithms for recognising distress calls in broilers to commercial laying hens. (4) Conducting scoping work to identify methods and feasibility of collecting and pre-processing of audio data integrated into the bird box hen mangement system |
| Collaborator Contribution | LAKES EGGS:Access to free range farms for collection of vocalisations ? Access to data collected from farms ; ? Provision of prototype bird boxes on farms which collect ; environmental, weight, feed and water data ? Staff time to help set up data collection on farm and for collaborative meetings; ? Total cost of in-kind contribition: £8750 FAI FARMS: Complete scoping project to assess feasibility and options for integrating vocalisation monitoring into bird box system; ? Access to data collected through prototype bird box hen management system (a collaborative enterprise with Lakes Eggs); ? Staff time for collaborative meetings, data extraction from bird box system and setting up secure data sharing systems for bird box data; ? Access to key figures from producer surveys to guide future application plans ? Total cost of in-kind contribition: £6600 |
| Impact | In this Seeding Catalyst Project we identified the key acoustic attributes required to automatically detect five call types related to different emotional and/or behavioural states in laying hens. Initially we had considered using methods we had already established already for broilers as part of BB/N010361/1, but new techniques were needed because of differences between the calls of broilers and layers. Calls were recorded from two commercial laying hen farms and annotated for different call types. The ability of five machine learning approaches to distinguish call types from one another and from background noise were compared. The Random Forest approach was the best performing with 77% accuracy in detecting five specific call types in laying hens. In addition, during this project we explored the feasibility of incorporating acoustic sensors into new or existing automated monitoring systems, and the potential market for acoustic sensors within the poultry industry. The project forms the basis of a feasibility study for the application of acoustic monitoring for laying hen health and welfare monitoring applications. To further develop this area of research, we have written proposals with the partners of this grant, Lakes Eggs and FAI, for the forthcoming ISCF call and the BBSRC LINK funding. |
| Start Year | 2017 |
| Description | Investigating movement and acoustic patterns of smothering behaviour in laying hens |
| Organisation | The Lakes Free Range Egg Co |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Collect movement recordings of chickens during smothering events: One sets of four CCTV and one thermal cameras (Agricamera, Barnstable) have been placed in a high smothering flock at The Lakes Free Range Egg Company. Cameras capture 60% of the litter area where smothering is most prevalent with footage remotely accessible. Master students are reviewing videos to record piling events, using mortality data provided by Lakes technical manager to identify (lethal) smothering events. In videos edited to include only piling formation, the clustering and movements of birds will be annotated. Rceordings of voclisations made at the smae time will be analysed for i) call diversity across the flock (lower indicates higher synchrony); ii) Gakel calls (sigh of frustration); iii) contact calls (indicating social behaviour). Videos will also be used to track chickens, comparing thermal and standard video footage for tracking/ characterizing bird density. |
| Collaborator Contribution | 1. In-kind contributions totalling £22,249. The in kind costs for staff time of the CEO David Brass (7 days £3,850 to attend project meetings, and support data collection on farms); Technical Manger (14 days to support data collection on farms £4536). Installation support for cameras (electrician estimate £1140); cables for installation (£184); wifi to support transfer of data to project partners across multiple sites; birdbox rental for Lakes with data from this to be provided to project (£12,500 for 6 months); Biosecurity and PPE equipment (£25); eggs to be given to project team for analysis (£14). 2. Access to Data and chickens. The Lakes will allow FAI to transfer data from Lakes Free Range Eggs Farms from the birdbox poultry management and sensor system, to the project team for use exclusively for the purpose of the project. The Lakes will support installation of equipment for the project and access to and support for measuring pullets and laying hens as required by the project. The Lakes will provide a proportion of eggs to the project following smothering. |
| Impact | BBSRC Link grant submitted based on initial pilot data. Planned submission to GCRF in May. |
| Start Year | 2019 |
| Description | Pen side testing - Broiler Pen Side Diagnostics (necrotic enteritis) |
| Organisation | Centre for Innovation Excellence in Livestock |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| PI Contribution | The aim of this proposal to provide proof of concept that pen side diagnostics of a commercially important poultry disease, neurotic enteritis, are possible. Specially, the project has two main objectives: 1) provide data to support early disease detection using imaging of the chicken house; 2) gather information to assess the feasibility of developing a lateral flow device for this disease. Pen side diagnostics empower farmers and stock persons to detect disease faster and in early stages of diseases, with potential to reduce use of antimicrobials. Our research team have been focusing on: 1. Collect video and thermal images of age-matched flocks with higher and lower levels of enteritis/ C. perfringes. (Asher/ Kyriazakis /Applied) 2. Extract measures from image data which could be implemented using existing poultry monitoring systems (Asher/Kyriazakis). 3. Present results of image analysis to representatives from relevant companies to in order to gain buy-in for demonstrator platform proposals (CIEL/ Asher). Within the wider research group at Newcastle University we have focused on: 5. Source commercial antibodies to Clostridium perfringens (Willats) 6. Assess in house suitability in DAS or PTA ELISA for selective discrimination of C. perfringens (Willats). |
| Collaborator Contribution | Through Applied Poultry we have been given access to 7 farms sites and half a million chickens. Applied poultry score enteritis for us to provide industry standards for current measurement. They have provided expertise and staff time to help install recording devices and have provided data on environmental parameters, moratlity, feed and water intake and activity levels as measured using a commercially available system. CIEL have provided an evaluation of the cost to UK poultry of Clostridium perfringens. This is essential in order to progress the research and commercial viability of pensdie diagnostics for C. perfringens or Enteritis. |
| Impact | The main outcome is pilot data fro future grant application to the GCRF. |
| Start Year | 2019 |
| Title | ALIS Ambient |
| Description | Monitoring temperature and light in a chicken barn to achieve optimum production yields and maintain welfare standards. |
| Type Of Technology | New/Improved Technique/Technology |
| Year Produced | 2019 |
| Impact | Lighting and temperature sensor for intensive poultry production which clips on to inductive lighting system. |
| Title | ALIS Chirpy |
| Description | ALIS Chripy Sensor An acoustic sensor which detects chick distress calling. Early life distress calling is associated with flock mortality and growth in meat (broiler) chickens. |
| Type Of Technology | New/Improved Technique/Technology |
| Year Produced | 2019 |
| Impact | The emotional state of a chick can be inferred with acoustic measurements to correlate with important production and welfare parameters. We believe the technology is the first commercially available product for livestock to be able to detect emotional state of animals automatically. |
| Title | ALIS Cluster |
| Description | Thermal camera used to detect clustering. It captures a floor area of approximately five metres square. |
| Type Of Technology | New/Improved Technique/Technology |
| Year Produced | 2019 |
| Impact | Thermal imaging gives the farmer visibility of flock mobility and clusters that can trigger poor litter quality, pododermatitis, and adverse gut health. Camera captures a floor area of approximately five metres square |
| Title | ALIS Greenhouse |
| Description | With livestock farming one of the biggest contributors to human-made greenhouse gases, this sensor provides farmers with Ammonia, CO2 and humidity data and alerts in real-time |
| Type Of Technology | Systems, Materials & Instrumental Engineering |
| Year Produced | 2019 |
| Impact | With livestock farming one of the biggest contributors to human-made greenhouse gases, this sensor provides farmers with Ammonia, CO2 and humidity data and alerts in real-time. |
| Description | BBC radio 4 Farming Today |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press) |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Interview on vocalisations as an indicator of chick welfare following a publication of a paper on the topic. The interview appeared on BBC Radio 4s Farming Today. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| Description | Campden BRI Industry Meat and Poultry Interest Group |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | Presented and asked questions to industry representatives to help inform ongoing research. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| Description | Campden BRI MIG |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | Presentation at Campden BRI Member Interest Group to demo ALIS Sensor devices which has environmental and welfare sensors to poultry producers. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Communication with industry representatives |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | The project was publicised to industry representatives and some initial results shared to generate interest. This was achieved through targeted communications by Campden BRI which has 2,400+ member companies in the food industry in 75+ countries. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| Description | EuroTier, Germany |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | Poster presentation of project findings related to automatic detection of poultry acoustics |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | IPPE Atlanta |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | The International Production & Processing Expo is the world's largest annual poultry, meat and feed industry event of its kind. A wide range of international decision-makers attend this annual event to network and become informed on the latest technological developments and issues facing the industry. The 2018 IPPE featured more than 7,093 international visitors from over 124 countries. Latin American represents the largest region of international visitors, but there has been continued growth in numbers coming from Europe. Canada represents the largest single country outside the United States with regards to number of attendees. The ALISSense device which was generated by the project was presented at this event. It has sensors of environmental parameters and welfare (acoustics). |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | International Society for Applied Ethology |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Presentation of research findings at an international conference to other academics. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| URL | http://www.wageningenacademic.com/doi/pdf/10.3920/978-90-8686-833-9 |
| Description | Invited seminar at Bangor University |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Invited seminar on thermal imagining at Bangor University to a Biology and Geography department |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | Laboratory Animal Science Association (LASA) Annual conference |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Invited presentation at International conference |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| Description | National Farmers Union Research Seminar |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | A presentation to the National Farmers Union on poultry research which resulted in lots of questions and approaches for collaborations/ study participation. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| Description | Poultry Health Conference in Loughborough |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | Poster presentation at Poultry Health Conference in Loughborough on findings from this project on automated detection of acoustics in poultry. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | School visit |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | Visit to local primary school to talk about animal science as part of national science week. Presentation of thermal imaging and accelerometry to nursery, reception and year 1 classes (3-6 years of age). School reported increase interest in science and presented photos of the visit at their science week exhibition. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Talk on entropy in chickens Bern workshop |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | Workshop in Bern Switzerland to discuss individual approaches to chicken behaviour. Attended by biggest free range producer from USA, Academics from across Europe, Policy makers from Switzerland, largest European producer of poultry housing and equipment, one of largest chicken genetics company in the world. Requests for further collabortaion with industry and academics, plans to submit ITN European proposal as a consortium. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Talks (Newcastle) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Three presentations have been given at the University to cross-disciplinary audiences including undergraduate and postgraduate researchers. The presentations have sparked discussions of future related activities and links with other departments |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
| URL | http://www.ncl.ac.uk/afrd/research/seminars/ |
| Description | UFAW June 2017 "One chick calling alters the flock affective state" |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | UFAW June 2017 "One chick calling alters the flock affective state" |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | University visit (Queen Mary University London) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Invited seminar on vocalizations to a Psychology department at Queen Mary University London |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| Description | VIV Asia, Bangkok. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | Presentation and demonstrations of ALIS Sense systems at VIV ASIA. Viv Asia has over 3000 delegates with more than 1,250 international exhibitors, including global market leaders and regional as well as national Asian players of growing importance. The audience is primarily professionals active in the production of pig meat, poultry meat, eggs, fish and dairy. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://www.viv.net/company/greengage-lighting-and-agri-tech |