Digital nose could sniff out poultry disease outbreaks

Smart sensors that detect changes in air velocity, pressure, temperature, volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and other parameters in the poultry house could help prevent outbreaks of poultry diseases, such as avian influenza.

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Vet doctor examining chicken. Vet concept
Vet doctor examining chicken. Vet concept
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Smart sensors that detect changes in air velocity, pressure, temperature, volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and other parameters in the poultry house could help prevent outbreaks of poultry diseases, such as avian influenza.

“It can prevent disease from spreading. It can help perform traceability on steroids. Not only does it cover the entire production chain, we also know the condition in which each transaction was done – from temperature to humidity,” Izak Shoshana, CEO, YieldX, said.

“In each house, the sensors can learn what the normal smell signal is over the time period that the animals are in there.”

Disease outbreaks can significantly affect both the productivity and profitability of poultry farms. Traditional disease monitoring relies on visual observation, which is time-consuming, labor-intensive and inefficient.

Sensors, artificial intelligence and other digital technologies offer farmers a way to lower the potential losses associated with infectious diseases.

Biosecurity benefits

Sensors can provide real-time surveillance, as well as environmental monitoring and perception, to track and identify biosecurity risks throughout the farm.

“The focus of this platform is our ability to, in certain cases, prevent, and hopefully, within a couple years, predict when a disease will infect a farm,” explained Shoshona.

The technology aims to minimize biosecurity risks through the monitoring of three factors: the inventory, the employees and equipment.

In addition to multi-sensor systems that can surveil environmental parameters within the farm, such as air velocity, pressure, temperature and relatively humidity, biosensors and other wearable technology can evaluate the stress, behavior and health disease status of individual birds.

Shoshona’s group is also working on a sensor that can monitor water quality.

“Water plays a huge role in poultry, but no one is checking the quality of the water consistently between cycles,” he said.

Sensors can even be used to monitor the movement of people throughout a farm. Traffic between poultry houses is one of the most common ways that avian flu and other infectious diseases spread. 

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