A Catalyst for Automated Capture and Analysis of Behaviour and Performance Changes in Pigs for Early Detection of Health and Welfare Problems

亚临床和临床疾病是导致猪系统效率低下、生产力和福利下降的主要因素。目前，疾病检测是通过人类观察或诊断监督完成的，但持续监测涉及巨大的成本和工作量。该项目旨在开发和验证自动监测生长猪性能和行为的技术。利用低成本的摄像装置以及计算机视觉和学习技术，将自动捕捉和分析猪只的个体和群体移动，从而提供关于猪的表现、行为和群体动态的信息，以便进行快速干预，以改善健康和福利，提高农场效率。该联盟在软件解决方案设计、动物健康和诊断以及生猪管理方面拥有技能，学术合作伙伴处于计算机视觉/识别技术和生猪管理与健康研究的前沿。

Subclinical & clinical disease is the main factor responsible for pig system inefficiency & reduction in pro-ductivity and welfare. Currently disease detection is done through human observation or diagnostic sur-veillance, but monitoring continuously involves significant costs & effort.The project aims to develop & validate technology to automatically monitor performance and behaviour in growing pigs. Individual pig and group movements will be automatically captured and analysed using low cost camera installations and computer vision and learning techniques, thereby providing information about pig performance, behaviour and group dynamics so as to allow rapid intervention to improve health and welfare and increase farm efficiency. The consortium has skills in the design of software solutions, animal health & diagnostics, and pig management, with the academic partner being at the forefront of research in computer vision/recognition techniques and pig management & health.