NEW TECHNOLOGIES IN ANIMAL WELFARE SCIENCE: COMPUTER VISION

New technology has the potential to advance and automate the early detection of animal welfare problems. Animal welfare scientists have collaborated with computer scientists to develop computer vision methods.

For video-monitoring the behaviour and movement of large groups of animals such as chickens. They have found that particular changes in group movement can be detected automatically and used to signal or predict the onset of welfare issues such as leg and foot problems. The researchers are currently developing the system so that farmers will be able to monitor their animals and receive warnings of impending welfare problems.

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