AWARTECH project: a new tool of precision livestock farming for growing-finishing pigs

Abstract

The world is, day by day, more demanding for high quality food, produced according to animal welfare regulations and ethical principles, and both social and environmental responsibility. This requires a special care with cost rationalization and increased efficiency in the use of production factors and value chains. Intensifying production pursing self-supply or higher competitiveness objectives may decrease animal welfare. Therefore, it’s important to monitor the environment inside the swine facilities and the animal welfare conditions. The main objective of the AWARTECH (Animal Welfare Adjusted Real Time Environmental Conditions of Housing) project was to create and develop an innovative precision livestock tool that will support and reinforce the pig value chain, by management solutions based on monitoring, analysis and control of environmental, physiological, behavioural and productive parameters. Environmental data were collected by sensors of temperature, relative humidity, air velocity and gas concentration, which are integrated in an environmental control system (Webisense) and a platform (Nidus). Webisense controlled the ventilation system, the cooling system and the heating system. The physiological data (rectal temperature, surface temperature) were collected manually and automatically. In order to monitor the behaviour of the animals, video cameras were installed. An individual feeding machine equipped with a scale has been installed. That allows, through an RFID system, individual monitoring and control of the amount of food supplied and ingested; number and duration of visits; and animal’s weight. The development of AWARTECH platform results from the integration of physiological data manually supplied and real-time data provided by Webisense, Nidus, feeding machine and video analytics, that allow the control of the environmental conditions in order to promote the animal welfare.