16AGRITECHCAT5: Early detection of tail biting in pigs using 3D video to measure tail posture

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Tail biting in pigs is a serious and unpredictable animal welfare problem for farmers worldwide. It results in losses forfarmers of £10.4M a year in the UK alone, mainly from carcass condemnation. Before damaging tail biting begins, pigs holdtheir tails down. This project will develop a system to detect these tail posture changes using a 3D video system givingfarmers advance warning of tail biting in time to intervene. We will 1) Collect continuous 3D video from pigs at a high risk oftail biting to capture the changes in tail posture pre-tail biting, 2) Provide a detailed behaviour analysis of tail posturechanges and 3) Develop software algorithms to automate this. The project partners provide expertise in pig behaviour(SRUC), a route to market and algorithms for automated 3D video analysis (Innovent Technology Ltd), pork supply chainknowledge (Sainsbury's) video expertise and access to a network of expertise in engineering and precision agriculture(Agri-EPI centre).