31 minute read
BioRem
ITALIAN VETERINARYPRODUCTS
TOXIN BINDERS
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What are Mycotoxins? Key facts
Ÿ Mycotoxins are naturally occurring toxins produced by certain moulds (fungi) and can be found in feed. Ÿ The moulds grow on a variety of different crops and foodstuffs. In the animal industry they are mostly found in feed products containing the following ingredients: © Corn © Wheat © Sorghum © Barley © Oat © Rye Ÿ Mycotoxins can cause a variety of adverse health effects and pose a serious health threat to both livestock and humans. Ÿ The adverse health effects of mycotoxins range from acute poisoning to long-term effects such as immune deficiency and cancer. Mycotoxins are toxic compounds that are naturally produced by certain types of moulds (fungi). Moulds that can produce mycotoxins grow on numerous foodstuffs such as cereals, dried fruits, nuts and spices. Mould growth can occur either before harvest or after harvest, during storage, on/in the food itself often under warm, damp and humid conditions. Most mycotoxins are chemically stable and survive food processing. Several hundred different mycotoxins have been identified, but the most commonly observed mycotoxins that present a concern to human health and livestock include aflatoxins, ochratoxin A, patulin, fumonisins, zearalenone and nivalenol/ deoxynivalenol. Mycotoxins appear in the food chain as a result of mould infection of crops both before and after harvest. Exposure to mycotoxins can happen either directly by eating infected food or indirectly from animals that are fed contaminated feed, in particular from milk. There are many factors that intervene in fungal proliferation and the contamination of crops with mycotoxins; the main factors are: Ÿ Soil type Ÿ Susceptibility of the crop Ÿ Maturity of the grain when harvested Ÿ Temperature and moisture Ÿ Damage to the crop: mechanical or that by insect and/or birds Ÿ Type of storage. Approximately 25% of world agricultural harvests have considerable mycotoxin contamination although this percentage rises in hot and tropical countries. When fungi produce mycotoxins they can remain in the environment even after the microorganism that produced them has disappeared or been eliminated. This is due to the fact that most mycotoxins show a very high resistance to heat or chemical and biological degradation, also they are highly soluble if in aqueous or highly absorbent mediums.
Types of Mycotoxins
Ÿ Aflatoxins Ÿ Trichothecenes Ÿ Fumosins Ÿ Zearalenone Ÿ Ochratoxins
Effect on poultry
Mycotoxins affect all poultry species by causing severe immunosuppression. This in turn results in increased susceptability to infectious diseases, reactivation of chronic infections, potential secondary reactions, increased need of use of drugs, and ineffectiveness of vaccination programs. Type A Trichotecenes are particularly toxics for poultry and the toxins that usually produce the worst economic losses in the poultry industry due to their fast effect on meat and egg production. Clinical symptoms and pathologies caused by intoxication:
January Winter Management for Poultry
February Disease Management
March Innovations
April Housing
May Heat Stress
June Eggs
July
August Processing
Feed
September Medications
October Breeding
November Bio-Secutrity
December Industry Outlook Challenges that cold weather bring for the livestock Ways to avoid any trouble Temperature Fluctuation Respiratory Disease Different type of Infections Strategies to avoid them Adaptability Effect to production New culture it brings Feeding and Watering Equipments Automatic Sheds Labour Management Consequences of heat Ways to spot heat stress Strategies to compact the impact Price Fluctuation Cold Chain Management Productivity Fluctuation Processing Equipments Management of growing chicken Cold Chain Management Price Fluctuation Energy requirements and feed intake Equipments Live Vaccines Overview Antibiotics vs Organic Are growth promoters beneficial? Layer Breeding Management Broiler Breeding Management Antimicrobial Carcass Treatments Gas emission Ecological Balance Year gone by.. What to expect from next year? New Rules, Policies- The conclusion.
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Best way to fight mycotoxins
There are two main ways to control mycotoxins: prevention and use of toxin binders.
Prevention
Prevention can occur both at the stages of feed production and feed storage and handling. Mycotoxins can accumulate right from the outset if the raw materials are not properly protected against pests and insects and are not collected, cleaned and dried with the highet hygenic standards. Therefore, the first step is to choose the right feed supplier to avoid receiving contaminated material. Once feed is in your possession, it important to maintain adequate facilities and handling measures. This means maintaining strict hygiene protocols around the farm and storage facilities, fumigating the feed against potential threats (such as rodents, insects and bacteria), conserving feed at moderate temperatures and without high humidity and moisture, allow ventilation of storage facilities and use mould inhibitors.
Treatment
Despite all best precautions, and given their invisibility to the humaneyeunlessinveryhighconcetrations,animalproducers alsoadoptadditionalpreventativetreatmenttoavoidthemuch higher cost of curing or replacing their livestock. The most commonandefficientmethodistousetoxinbinderstoabsorb mycotoxinsbothinsidetheanimalandintheirlitter. Toxin binders, also referred to as captants, are usually in powder form for easy mix with feed. They are mainly based on various types of minerals that are able to attach to or destroy the particles of the toxins thanks to their chemical effect and structure. However, a popular base ingredient for toxin binders are the cell walls of the yeast Saccharomyces Cervisiae. Once ingested, toxin binders might also have additional detoxing and health effects for the animals. Finally, the more sophisticated toxin binders products will also include some beneficial ingredients to boost the animal health whilst removing toxins.
Types of toxin binders
The main and most effective types of toxin binders are: 1. Saccharomyces cervisiae cell wall 2. Bentonite / Montmorillonite 3. Clinoptilolite 4. Sepiolite 5. Kieselghur / diatomaceous earth 6. Kaolin 7. Attapulgite 8. Natrolite-phonolite In addition to the yeast and minerals above, enzimes such as oxidases, catalases, lactonases and sterases can all potentially reduce mycotoxins to inactive forms. However, at present there is only a small amount of scientific literature to prove their efficiency. In the table below we summarise the additional beneficial effects that each toxin binder may have on specific types of animal, both as a result of their detoxifying effect and as a result of their additional nutritional characteristics.
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Our solutions for you
Biorem can offer an exhensive range of products that comprise together different type of toxin binders and concentrations to help you achieve the best solution for your livestock operations.
About BIO-REM
Bio-rem is a leading company in the field of phytogenics feed supplements. We provide products of the highest quality to optimise animal health and performance. Our work provides an important contribution in replacing the excessive use of antibiotics and medicines, which poses a serious health risk for animals and humans alike, with the balanced adoption of natural and harmless products. BioRem is specialized mostly in poultry and cattle with liquid and powder formulations. We are able to produce products on the specific request of clients and has an innovative line of phytogenic products based on herbs and essential oils. Bio-rem has developed its lines of products with different veterinary scientific studies and its method is a non-invasive and non residual treatment approach. Our mission is to be trusted reference with deep knowledge of healthy and effective veterinary formulations. In doing so we aim to contribute to the progressive decrease in the use of antibiotics in animal farming. Our values are: knowledge, competence, professionalism are the values that accompany us every day.
OUR STORY
Elisabetta Mason founded Bio-rem after 30 years of working in the veterinary field, in order to provide a high quality Made in Italy for the overseas animal farming market and a trusted partner to formulate the best types of products to meet their needs. Through the years, the company has achieved great success in Italy and in international markets, particularly in Middle Easten and African countries. That’s why, Bio-Rem also holds the exclusive distribution of some of the most important producers in the feed supplement industry. Through the years, the company has achieved great success in Italy and in international markets, particularly in Middle Easten and African countries. That’s why, Bio-Rem also holds the exclusive distribution of some of the most important producer s in the feed supplement industry. The nutrition of farm animals aimed at improving their performance and "animal welfare", has become over the years the fundamental aspect for which customers have recognized the best quality in Bio-rem products. Our company continues on the path to innovation, by constantly consulting and researching new solutions and products for our clients, with whom with face the challenges of the future together. The results is: innovative products for animal welfare. Bio-rem takes care of animals with natural products as the best medicines that can be used. Natural products, while acting in depth, do not cause the accumulation of toxic substances in the animals and, consequently, have no contraindications. It is the innate desire to develop effective and innovative products, the incessant research and daily dialogue with the client, that makes Bio-Rem careful, modern, concrete, that makes quality its strength to ensure the well-being of the animal and, consequently, the profitability of the farm.
Bio-Rem: Passion for our work… this is our formula for success!
Heat Stress and Its Amelioration Techniques in Poultry Birds
Dr. Ajit Kumar1 2, Tania Roy 2 , Atri Ghosh
1PhD Scholar, Department of Livestock Production Management, WBUAFS, Kolkata 2B.Sc. (Ag.), School of Agricultural Sciences, JIS University, Kolkata Ajit Kumar Tania Roy
Introduction
A hot environment is one of the important stressors in poultry production. The resultant heat stress comes from the interactions among air temperature, humidity, radiant heat and air speed, where the air temperature plays the major role. The adverse effects of heat stress include high mortality, decreased feed consumption, and poor body weight gain and meat quality in broiler chickens, and poor laying rate and egg weight and shell quality in laying hens. Due to the common occurrence of environmental stressors worldwide, this shows many detrimental effects of heat stress on poultry production. It has been shown that heat stress negatively affects the welfare and productivity of broilers and laying hens. Moreover, the negative impact of heat stress on poultry welfare has recently attracted increasing public awareness and concern. Therefore, stress represents the reaction of the animal organism (i.e., a biological response) to stimuli that disturb its normal physiological equilibrium or homeostasis. Heat stress results from a negative balance between the net amount of energy flowing from the animal's body to its surrounding environment and the amount of heat energy produced by the animal. This imbalance may be caused by variations of a combination of environmental factors (e.g., sunlight, thermal irradiation, and air temperature, humidity and movement), and characteristics of the animal (e.g., species, metabolism rate, and thermoregulatory mechanisms). The importance of animal responses to environmental challenges applies to all species. However, poultry seems to be particularly sensitive to temperature-associated environmental challenges, especially heat stress.
Mechanisms of body heat regulation in poultry
The metabolic activities involved in maintenance, growth and egg production in birds leads to heat production and is influenced by species, breed, body weight, level of production, level of feed intake, feed quality and, to a lesser extent, by the amount of activity and exercise. The regulation of body heat in birds mainly occurs through five mechanisms namely, radiation, conduction, convection, evaporation and excretion. Heat lost through radiation is by electromagnetic means wherein, if the surrounding temperature is below bird surface temperature heat will radiate from the bird's warmer body to a cooler surface, such as air, without the use of a medium. Body heat loss through convection i.e., by moving air over birds is the most effective way to reduce heat stress as the natural rise of warm air from around the bird's hot body will cause heat loss. Providing moving air can assist convection, but only if the airs moves fast enough to break down the boundary layer of still air that surrounds the body. Proper ventilation is the key to keeping birds cool in hot weather. Heat loss through evaporation is very important at high temperatures as poultry do not sweat but depend on panting for losing heat.
Heat stress in poultry
Stress is defined as the “nonspecific response of the body to any demand”, whereas stressor can be defined as “an agent that produces stress at any time” . Hence, stress represents a biological response of the animal/organism to stimuli that disturb its normal physiological equilibrium or homeostasis. The optimum temperature for performance/ thermo-neutral zone is between 19-22ºC for laying hens and 18-22ºC for growing broilers. Poultry birds when are in 'thermo-neutral zone' , do not suffer from heat stress as body temperature is held constant and the birds lose heat at a controlled rate using normal behavior. However, any deviation from the thermo-neutral zone results in heat stress, causing a negative balance between net amount of energy flowing from the bird's body to its surrounding environment and the amount of heat energy produced by the bird (Figure 1).
Figure 1: Different ambient temperature zones for poultry 1. Impact of heat stress on poultry 1.1. Biological Changes in Poultry Due to
Heat Stress
Heat stress in poultry results in several behavioral, physiological, and neuroendocrine changes that influence health and performances (Figure 2).
Figure 2: Effects of heat stress on behavioral, physiological, neuroendocrine, and production traits. 1.2. Behavioral and Physiological Effects of
Heat Stress
Under high temperature conditions, birds alter their behavior and physiological homeostasis seeking thermoregulation, thereby decreasing body temperature. In general, different types of birds react similarly to heat stress, expressing some individual variation in intensity and duration of their responses. Birds subjected to heat stress conditions spend less time feeding, more time drinking and panting, as well as more time with their wings elevated, less time moving or walking, and more time resting. Heat stress can affect the reproductive function of poultry in different ways. In females, heat stress can disrupt the normal status of reproductive hormones at the hypothalamus, and at the ovary, leading to reduced systemic levels and functions. Also, negative effects caused by heat stress in males have been shown. Semen volume, sperm concentration, number of live sperm cells and motility decreased when males were subjected to heat stress.
1.3. Impact of Heat Stress on Poultry
Production
Broilers may be exposed to a variety of stressors during transport from the production farms to the processing facilities, including thermal challenges of the transport micro environment, acceleration, vibration, motion, impacts, fasting, and withdrawal of water, social disruption, and noise. As part of this complex combination of factors, thermal stress, in particular heat stress, plays a major role. The confined conditions within the transport containers reduce the effectiveness of the bird's behavioral and physiological thermoregulator y mechanisms. Consequently, the adverse effects of these factors and their combinations range from mild discomfort to death. In fact, heat stress during transport has been associated with higher
mortality rate, decreased meat quality, and reduced welfare status. Decreased feed intake is very likely the starting point of most detrimental effects of heat stress on production, leading to decreased body weight, feed efficiency, egg production and quality. However, in addition to decreased feed intake, it has been shown that heat stress leads to reduced dietary digestibility, and decreased plasma protein and calcium levels. In layers, the detrimental effects of heat stress are initiated with decreased feed intake followed by reduced dietary digestibility, and decreased plasma protein and calcium levels, causing significant damage to egg production and quality. Heat stress has been demonstrated to decrease production performance in layers causing reduced eggshell thickness, egg shell thickness, increased egg breakage and egg weight and percentage.
1.4. Effect of Heat Stress on Immune
Response
When bird's body temperatures are in thermo-neutralzone, the energy from the feed can be directed to immune system development apart from the growth and reproduction. During the heat stress, bird's body makes several physiological changes to maintain body temperature causing reduced immune response. However, there is still inadequate understanding of immune response to heat stress in poultry with reference to genetic and cellular mechanisms.
1.5. Effect of Heat Stress on Food Safety
Food safety has become an important part in the modern day concept of food quality and more recently, the poultry industry worldwide is facing the major issue of food safety due to heat stress. The deleterious effect of heat stress in broilers by virtue of the associated undesirable meat characteristics and quality loss has been noticed frequently. The meat quality losses were also noticed during the transportation of broilers under high environmental temperature from farms to processing facilities. Environmental stress has been shown to be a factor that can lead to colonization of farm animals by pathogens, increased fecal shedding and horizontal transmission, and consequently, increased contamination risk of animal products.
2. Mitigation Strategies to Ameliorate Heat
Stress in Poultry 2.1. Microclimate Modification:
One of the keys to minimizing heat stress in poultry houses during hot weather is making sure that outside air can easily flow into and out of the house. The easier it is for outside air to flow through a house, the less likely there will be a detrimental build-up of heat within the house, minimizing inside to outside temperature differentials. In hot and humid environments, open-style houses with proper shading, adequate air movement and water consumption are essential. Ventilation should be maximized as the air movement facilitates removal of build-up ammonia, carbon dioxide and moisture from the poultry sheds. A grass cover on the grounds surrounding the poultry house will reduce the reflection of sunlight into the house. Vegetation should be kept trimmed to avoid blocking air movement and to help reduce rodent problems. Shade trees should be located where they do not restrict air movement. Another factor that affects heat gain of a house is the condition of the roof. Roofs should be kept free of dust and rust. The use of circulation fans is recommended for proper ventilation. The primary purpose of circulation fans in a naturally ventilated house is not to bring air into the house but rather to produce air movement over the birds to increase convective cooling. Generally, it is best if circulation fans are orientated to blow with the long axis of a house and positioned towards the center of the house, where air movement tends to be most needed. Circulation fans should generally be installed in rows. To maximize air movement over the birds, circulation fans should generally be installed 1–1.5 m above the floor and tilted downward at approximately a 5° angle. In poultry, not only the heat production but also heat loss is related to heat stress. Adequate ventilation is vital for heat stress management in poultry birds. Heat loss by evaporative heat dissipation is linked to relative humidity of the surrounding environment. Therefore, high temperature accompanied by high humidity is more detrimental to broiler performance than high temperature with low humidity. The evaporative heat loss increases along with temperature and decreases with increasing humidity. Early heat conditioning (EHC) seems to be one of the promising methods in enhancing heat resistance of broiler chickens. Early heat conditioning refers to the practice exposing broiler chicks to high temperature(36°C) for 24 h at 3 to 5 d of age. Where possible, and in particular in older broiler houses with less efficient ventilation, it is sound practice to reduce stock ingdensities in the summer.
2.2. Nutritional Supplementation
Feed conversion in broilers is subject to significant fluctuations because of seasonal as well as ambient temperature changes. Heat stress increases the mineral excretion from body and decreases the serum and liver concentrations of vitamins(e.g., vitamin C, E and A) and minerals (e.g., Fe, Zn, Se and Cr). Moreover, mobilization of minerals and vitamins from tissues and their excretion are increased under heat stress causing marginal mineral and vitamin deficiency. Vitamins and mineral supplementation has been demonstrated to decrease mortality and improve growth of poultry birds during heat stress. The dietary electrolyte balance is more critical at high temperature than at normal temperature. The addition of extra vitamins, electrolytes and antioxidants to the drinking water is also helpful during heat stress. Since heat stress always depresses appetite and therefore reduces nutrient intake, the use of a vitamin and electrolyte pack in the drinking water for 3-5 days during a heat wave has been shown to be helpful in most cases. Vitamin C (ascorbic acid) supplementation is probably the most beneficial among vitamins, and use of Vitamin C in the feed or in the drinking water has become a common practice in hot regions. The detrimental effect of heat stress on egg production can also be alleviated by dietary supplementation of Vitamin A (8000 IU/kg diet). Vitamin E supplementation is beneficial to the egg production of hens at high temperatures and is associated with an increase in feed intake and yolk and albumen solids. Feeding birds at cool times enables birds to make up for what they have not eaten during the day. Laying hens increase their calcium intake during the evening as eggshells are normally formed during this time. Remove feed 4 to 6 hours prior to an anticipated heat stress period. Birds should not be fed or disturbed during the hottest part of the day. Diming of lights while feeding or using low light intensity during periodical feeding reduces activity that reduces heat load.
Conclusions
Heat stress is one of the most important environmental stressors challenging poultry production worldwide. The negative effects of heat stress on broilers and laying hens range from reduced growth and egg production to decreased poultry and egg quality and safety. However, a major concern should be the negative impact of heat stress on poultry welfare. Although, the per capita consumption per annum of poultry, meat and eggs in India has shown a steady progress over the years and is presently estimated around 3.50 kg meat and 79 eggs, respectively, is much lower than the minimum recommendations of 11 kg meat and180 eggs/year person by Indian Council of the Medical Research (USDA, 2011). Attaining this mark needs raising poultry productivity by at least three times which still remains a major challenge in tropical country like ours where summer is severe.
1Manoj Kumar Singh 2, Jinu Manoj 3 and Mohit Bharadwaj
1Assistant Professor, COVAS, SVPUAT, Meerut, Uttar Pradesh 2ADIO, Central Laboratory., LUVAS, Hisar, Haryana 3Ph.D Scholar, Depatrment of Animal Nutrition, GBPUAT, Pantnagar, Uttarakhand Email: drmanoj611@gmail.com Manoj Kumar Singh
1. Introduction
Artificial intelligence (AI) is defined as the simulation of human intelligence in machines that are programmed to think like humans and mimic their actions. It may also be applied to any machine that exhibit traits associated with human mind such as learning and problem solving. Human like machine capabilities, including perception, reasoning and learning, communication, task planning and execution and systems integration have been the essential enablers for poultry intelligent automation systems. The richness and value of intelligence are often thought to increase through the forms of data, information, knowledge and wisdom (DIKW) generated by the processes of reasoning and learning. Various combination and integration of human-like machine capabilities generate a “system of systems”. Intelligence, in the form of human-like 'wisdom', is usually deployed to guide machine 'actions'. Health, welfare, production/reproduction, product yields/quality, environmental impacts etc. are critical performance indicators of poultry productivity. Taking into account labor costs, food safety and animal welfare, poultry production has evolved from initial small scale distributed operations through large scale concentrated facilities in various forms to smart systems run mainly by intelligent machines.
2. Common and specific automation technologies for poultry egg and meat production systems
The major poultry production systems are commonly classified into egg and meat production systems. The application of advanced technology is commonly seen in poultry houses such as automatic feed and water supply using automation technologies. For cage production systems, with the structured system configurations various automation equipments have become functional parts within the systems such as highly automated machines for collecting and sorting eggs for layers. Introduction of intensive sensing and data/information analysis tools, development of Precision Livestock Farming (PLF) technologies has brought about new ideas in modernizing the poultry production systems.
3. Precision livestock farming (PLF) technologies
The development and practice of precision l i v e s t o c k f a r m i n g d r a w u p o n interdisciplinary engineering and science that include animal science, physiology, veterinary science, ethology, information and computing science, mechanical engineering, electronic engineering and others. The technologies of PLF aim to manage the growth of individual animals to create added value by real-time supervision of environmental factors, animal health and yield, production, reproduction and welfare in an automatic, continuous and noninvasive form throughout the production process, without any additional stress on the animals. The emergence of PLF stimulated the overall expansion of poultry production, within which chickens were tracked perflock.
3.1. Applications of PLF in poultry production systems
Various growth parameters of chickens have been mostly measured separately using various sensors, including the image acquisition system, sound acquisition system, automatic detection of bird conditions during production and some others. However, holistic inspection of poultry health conditions using robots has been rare. Information on chicken health, environmental conditions (temperature, humidity, litter, air quality, light intensity, and photoperiod), behavior, diet, stress, and affective states were also acquiring popularity for better understanding the physiological condition of chicken. These technologies have great potential to be integrated and transferred into the commercial poultry production systems to address the intelligent and unmanned poultry houses.
3.2. Capture image information
Animal welfare is commonly assessed based on mortality, physiology, behavior, and health. Animal behavioral parameters can
be monitored with video cameras to estimate welfare status in commercial broiler houses used machine vision to identify biomechanical variables of broiler chickens during feeding, evaluate lameness of broilers. Use of real time digital image system which could inspect the movement of broilers to monitor the poultry health status and to distinguish the sick ones from the flock can be automatically regulated. Diseases like Deep Pectoral Myopathy (DPM) could be detected online using dielectric spectroscopy. A 3D camera-based system which could determine the weight of several broilers at once or predict the weight of an individual broiler is possible. Thermographic images based on Infra red (IR) technology was introduced in a commercial poultry farm to identify the presence of laying hens.
3.3. Capture sound information
Vocalizations of hens have been proven to be a performance indicator of welfare status affected by the corresponding environment. Bio responses were used in the field of precision livestock farming to quantify the dynamic feed intake in different ages with the pecking sounds. Also real-time pecking sound analysis tool is used to identify shortterm group feeding behaviors. A support vector machine (SVM) model was used to separate diseased chickens from healthy chickens. The features and algorithms could be adjusted to apply to different commercial settings. Similarly, online-monitoring prototypes were used to detect the stress and classify it into types like physical and mental stress using vocalization of laying hens. Microphone arrays of Kinects were used to automatically detect the anomalous status of laying hens through the number of vocalizations and area distributions during nights.
4. Machine capabilities – subsystems
Machine capabilities, including perception, reasoning/learning, communication, and task planning/execution, applied to a wide range of agricultural production systems. The technologies that were originally developed for other agricultural uses may have the potentials to be applied to poultry production systems.
4.1. Perception
The capability of perception provides information to aid in the understanding of the objects themselves and the surrounding environments. Sensors are generally defined as devices which are frequently used to collect and process the information. Some sensing methods are intrusive or destructive and others are non-interfering. Non-intrusive techniques, such as optical and acoustic technologies have been well utilized in recent years. In addition to commonly seen sensors for light, humidity, temperature, CO2, smell, taste, pH, the soil properties, nutrients and pest conditions are also having significant role. Image information, as the primary data type, is relatively easy to acquire and is widely used. There are many different classification criteria for imaging technologies. According to the signal source of imaging, it could be divided into optical, acoustic, and thermal imaging. Optical imaging can be divided into machine vision and spectral imaging. The spectral imaging which integrates both spectroscopy and imaging technologies can be classified into Vis/NIR imaging, infrared (IR) imaging, UV imaging, terahertz (THz) imaging, and others according to the various wavelength ranges. There is another way to group the spectral imaging into hyperspectral imaging (HSI), multispectral imaging (MSI), and ultraspectral imaging (USI) based on different spectral resolutions. Depending on the spatial dimensions of the acquired image, the optical sensors are classified into the monocular and binocular stereo cameras. Some light detectors, like laser sensors, can also obtain image information. The laser range data has shown great potential on high-precision 3D detection can be used in animal phenotyping. The technologies mentioned above have great potential in poultry production.
4.2 Portable sensors in general agricultural production
Real-time monitoring systems for various poultry production environments would be valuable. The development of low-cost, light-weight, modular, and portable sensors were becoming popular in both academia and industry. Use of portable spectral-based sensor hyperspectral fluorescence imaging, hyperspectral linescan camera and an RGB camera were mounted on a UGV to provide real-time information for the optimization of various production systems. Applications of wireless wearable sensors for data collection from individual laying hens were used to detect jumping and landing force. These can be used effectively as on-line applications in poultry production systems.
4.3. Multi-sensor systems in general agricultural production
The acquisition of multi-information acquired from these portable sensors shown excellent potential in the poultry production systems due to the complex physiological structure of birds. The systems showed a significant improvement on the ambient awareness for agricultural robots, including the trafficability assessment and obstacle detection. A typical positioning and navigation system consists of sensors, including camera vision systems, Light Detection and Ranging (Lidar) systems, Radio Detection and Ranging (Radar) systems, global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) inertial measurement unit (IMU), etc. Various combinations of these sensors could achieve different results in each application scenario. The current and emerging wireless sensor networks (WSN) are other successful multi-sensor application cases in general agricultural production. 4.4 Reasoning capabilities in poultry production systems Commercial applications of egg sorting according to different principles can be done based on AI. Use of computer vision to e s t i m a t e e g g m a s s i n d i r e c t l y commercialized a dynamic weighing system with low error and high speed based on the Digital Signal Processor (DSP). Two egg volume prediction models to determine egg size based on the mathematics model and Artificial Neural Network (ANN) model is used to achieve online detection of realtime separation of blood spot eggs from normal ones with accuracy of 95%.
4.5 Quantification of chicken health, especially welfare status, through various indicators
The activity and distribution of the flock, monitored under continuous illumination, were related to the welfare status scored by human experts. The behaviors could provide early warnings about which birds were possibly infected by pathogen. The automated assessment of lameness was achieved by the gait score obtained from image analysis techniques in commercial broiler flocks. Individual quantification of thermal interaction between eggshell and microambient air for correctly determining the hatching time and early mortality can be done. Dead bird detection systems based on machine vision and SVM. The SVM system took the outline image of a bird twice in 5
min lso presented a method to detect dead laying hens in farms through locating motionless animals by comparing two successive images or more in the same position.
4.6. Communication
Communication, which is an essential aspect of robotic systems for human-tomachine and machine-to-machine interfaces and interactions, aims to appropriately inform and obtain responses among the components for proper monitoring and control of the system. Human, robot, environment, and animal are interconnected subsystems to be efficiently integrated into a “system of systems” through communication. Thus, high performance, real-time, extensible, and distributed communication methods will be essential for enhancing the level of intelligence in poultry production systems. With the requirements of minimization and integration, the current and emerging largescale Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) includes simplicity, mobility, flexibility, scalability, and adaptation of remote operations. This network communication could improve the perception capability of robots and enhance the adaptabilities of robots facing the real-time changes of tasks and corresponding environment.
4.7. Task planning and execution
Task planning and execution, linking the decisions and actions, are two human-like functions that can be performed by intelligent machines in the controlled poultry production system. In poultry production using of robotics to replace the repetitive and frequent manual operation, such as assessing animal status, removing dead chickens, maintaining indoor environmental conditions (dry cleaning, wet cleaning, removal of actual manure, ventilation, and sanitization), vaccinating, weighing, picking floor eggs, sorting and packaging eggs, etc. Picking floor eggs, which leads to high labor cost, is critical for farmers. Georgia Tech Research Institute researchers developed a mobile robot system capable of autonomously navigating among a flock of live chickens to carry out inspection and other utility functions. The robot could pick floor eggs and place them in a crate, as well as interact with chickens by nudging them. Another autonomous mobile poultry robot, PoultryBot, was developed by researchers at Wageningen University and Research Centre which could be used to assist farmers in critical daily tasks, such as detecting environmental conditions and collecting floor eggs. Platform prototype with a percussion mechanismcouldbeusedtoinspectthedead chicken and monitor the environmental conditions (temperature and humidity). The number of chicken legs appearing in the image was used to determine whether there wasatleastonedeadchicken
5. System integration – system of systems
Use of integrated robotic systems or portable multi-functional machines improves the entire production process in poultry production. Multiple machine capabilities have been integrated to take advantage of machine intelligence in guiding robot actions where several poultry robots or intelligent systems are used to achieve specific functions in specific areas.
5.1. Commercial robotics in poultry production systems
Poultry robotics and AI applications are developed by several companies in recent years. Autonomous navigation technology has shown great potential in cage-free poultry production. Octopus Robots, a company in Cholet (France), developed an autonomous modular robot to sanitize poultry houses with no human intervention. The robot enhances the effect of disinfectant, through turning and ventilating litters, to reduce the mortality and improve the welfare, without the use of antibiotics. Spoutnic, an autonomous poultry-farming robot launched by TIBOT Technologies (Cesson-Sevigne, France), was designed to solve a recurring problem of the floor eggs through circulating and training hens to lay eggs in nest boxes. It significantly reduces the number of floor eggs and improving the health and productivity of hens via movement. Chicken Boy, a roof-suspended robot manufactured by FAROMATICS (Barcelona, Spain), is capable of continuously inspecting broilers' health and welfare, air quality, and equipment operation through its multiple sensors. The alarms for on-coming diseases and the identification of dead chickens could be provided by the mobile observation platform. Robot chicken nannies, developed by the Charoen Pokphand Group (Beijing, China), is a humanoid wheeled robot for monitoring and recording bird temperature and movements along the set tracks in a conventional cage house. Chickens having abnormal temperatures or no movement could be detected by the thermal imaging camera. Metabolic Robots, (Kfar Tavor, Israel) developed an intelligent feeding optimization strategy through real-time monitoring actual flock demand. The system provides early warning about the broiler disease through the mobile device while significantly improving the uniformity of the flock weight. The efficiency and profits could be improved by the higher Feed Conversion Rate (FCR). Little Bird Systems in Fayetteville, U.S.A., provides the Feed Cast, a wireless feed inventory control system, for measurements of feed levels in feed bins. Optimization services, provide by the Applied Group in Chesterfield, UK, to improve broiler farmers' management knowledge. Farm Bookpro, an app first introduced by Big Dutchman (Vechta, Germany), provides a mobile digital notebook to document and analyze the daily broilers' production data in the form of graphs.
6. Conclusion
Limited knowledge is available on integrated robotic systems or portable multifunctional machines that enhance the entire production process for the production of poultry. Introduction of robotics into poultry production and evaluation of its various aspects of humanlike machine capabilities is a need of the hour. New concepts for agricultural production and extended machine capabilities would open up new possibilities for robotics applications, including precision farming of livestock. In offering comprehensive solutions to agricultural production processes, such as an entire poultry house management approach, an in-depth understanding of 'system analysis and integration' will also be critical. The benefits of robotics and computer capabilities, as with many technological advances, allow us to replace human labor and animal power in undesirable working conditions, as well as ensure uniformity and increase the safety and efficiency of the work performed. The existing systems of poultry production are very likely to benefit from advances in robotics research and applications.
