Smart Animal Production
Volume 1 / 2023
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Article
Open AccessHotspots and bottlenecks for the enhancement of the environmental sustainability of pig systems, with emphasis on European pig systems
Although pig systems start from a favourable baseline of environmental impact compared to other livestock systems, there is still scope to reduce their emissions and further mitigate associated impacts, especi...
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Article
Open AccessDeep learning pose estimation for multi-cattle lameness detection
The objective of this study was to develop a fully automated multiple-cow real-time lameness detection system using a deep learning approach for cattle detection and pose estimation that could be deployed acro...
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Book Series
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Chapter
Putting Smart into Nutrition
The solution to the central problem of nutritionists, of what will happen if a particular animal is fed in a particular way whilst kept in a specific environment at a specific point in time, relies on sufficient ...
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Book
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Chapter
Mathematical and Statistical Approaches to the Challenge of Forecasting Animal Performance for the Purposes of Precision Livestock Feeding
Provision of feeding strategies tailored to the dynamic, preferably individual-level nutrient requirements is expected to greatly reduce the mismatch between nutrient supply and demand of most animals and coul...
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Article
Open AccessEconomic feasibility of interventions targeted at decreasing piglet perinatal and pre-weaning mortality across European countries
Piglet perinatal and pre-weaning mortality is a welfare problem causing economic losses in pig production. In this study, the effects of housing and management interventions on the economic result of sow enter...
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Article
Open AccessAccounting for spatial variability in life cycle cost-effectiveness assessments of environmental impact abatement measures
The environmental and economic impacts of livestock production systems are typically assessed using global characterisation factors and data, even though several impact categories call for site-specific assess...
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Article
Open AccessAutomated recognition of postures and drinking behaviour for the detection of compromised health in pigs
Changes in pig behaviours are a useful aid in detecting early signs of compromised health and welfare. In commercial settings, automatic detection of pig behaviours through visual imaging remains a challenge d...
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Article
Open AccessRisk factors for poor health and performance in European broiler production systems
Conventional broilers are currently one of the most efficient protein converters. Although decades of progress in genetic selection and feed formulation have lead to high standards of efficient broiler product...
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Article
Open AccessA method to estimate the environmental impacts from genetic change in pig production systems
The environmental impacts (EIs) of the global pig production sector are expected to increase with increasing global pork demand. Although the pig breeding industry has made significant progress over the last d...
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Article
Open AccessThe challenge of incorporating animal welfare in a social life cycle assessment model of European chicken production
There is increasing public concern over standards of farm animal welfare, yet the majority of sustainability studies of livestock have thus far focused only on environmental performance and profitability. Wher...
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Article
Open AccessHarnessing longitudinal information to identify genetic variation in tolerance of pigs to Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome virus infection
High resistance (the ability of the host to reduce pathogen load) and tolerance (the ability to maintain high performance at a given pathogen load) are two desirable host traits for producing animals that are ...
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Article
Open AccessAutomated tracking to measure behavioural changes in pigs for health and welfare monitoring
Since animals express their internal state through behaviour, changes in said behaviour may be used to detect early signs of problems, such as in animal health. Continuous observation of livestock by farm staf...
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Article
Open AccessThe genetic basis of novel water utilisation and drinking behaviour traits and their relationship with biological performance in turkeys
There is increasing interest in the definition, measurement and use of traits associated with water use and drinking behaviour, mainly because water is a finite resource and its intake is an important part of ...
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Article
Open AccessUse of multi-trait and random regression models to identify genetic variation in tolerance to porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus
A host can adopt two response strategies to infection: resistance (reduce pathogen load) and tolerance (minimize impact of infection on performance). Both strategies may be under genetic control and could thus...
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Article
Open AccessThe need for co-product allocation in the life cycle assessment of agricultural systems—is “biophysical” allocation progress?
Several new “biophysical” co-product allocation methodologies have been developed for LCA studies of agricultural systems based on proposed physical or causal relationships between inputs and outputs (i.e. co-...
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Article
Open AccessBreeding for efficiency in the broiler chicken: A review
Artificial selection of broiler chickens for commercial objectives has been employed at an unprecedented magnitude over the recent decades. Consequently, the number of days, total feed and in turn energy, requ...
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Article
Open AccessExploring the assumptions underlying genetic variation in host nematode resistance (Open Access publication)
The wide range of genetic parameter estimates for production traits and nematode resistance in sheep obtained from field studies gives rise to much speculation. Using a mathematical model describing host – par...
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Article
Grazing in heterogeneous environments: infra- and supra-parasite distributions determine herbivore grazing decisions
We tested the hypothesis that the infra-gastrointestinal parasite population of herbivores affects their grazing behaviour in relation to the supra-parasite population of parasites in the environment. Our fir...
