Vision-based system tracks, analyzes chicken welfare

Researchers at Queen’s University Belfast, in partnership with North Ireland poultry producer Moy Park, are working to develop new technology that leverages crowd analysis techniques to intelligently monitor chicken welfare.

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David Tadevosian | shutterstock.com
David Tadevosian | shutterstock.com

Researchers at Queen’s University Belfast, in partnership with North Ireland poultry producer Moy Park, are working to develop new technology that leverages crowd analysis techniques to intelligently monitor chicken welfare.

“FlockFocus is a multi-disciplinary project that brings together experts in broiler chicken welfare and in video analysis. Our aim is to adapt computer vision and deep-learning approaches already developed for human crowd analysis to broiler chickens,” explained Niamh O’Connell, from the Institute for Global Food Security (IGFS) at Queen’s University Belfast. “We believe this would represent a step-change for the industry and could potentially form an important management tool for broiler farmers.”

Once finished, the vision-based system will make it easier to monitor large numbers of birds, track activity patterns and gather welfare indicators.

Technique tracks bird behavior

The system will use crowd analysis techniques, already used in humans, to monitor bird welfare and behavior.

“The same principles will apply, in terms of detecting individuals and tracking them, and measuring their physical properties and gait characteristics, but with a broiler welfare application. Therefore, the system will be based on a deep-learning approach to monitor a range of indicators simultaneously,” O’Connell said.

Current challenges in monitoring poultry welfare

Most poultry farms currently rely on human observation to monitor chicken welfare, a method that is subjective and labor-intensive compared to technological approaches.

“Farm animal welfare is increasingly important to consumers, and many consumers and retailers expect robust monitoring systems to be in place. Effective monitoring across the production cycle means that farmers can intervene rapidly to resolve any issues and ensure high welfare standards,” O’Connell said.

“There have been many advances in recent years in automated approaches to monitoring farm animal behavior and welfare as part of precision livestock farming. For broiler chickens, vision-based systems could offer an opportunity to enhance the level and depth of behavior and welfare monitoring on commercial farms in a relatively inexpensive way.”

The Foundation for Food and Agricultural Research (FFAR) and McDonald’s recently named the project one of their Phase 1 winners as part of the Smart Broiler initiative. The Smart Broiler program awarded more than $4 million in grants and technical support to develop automated monitoring tools that precisely assess chicken welfare.

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