Farms.com Home   News

Using artificial intelligence to track animal welfare

Researchers are looking to artificial intelligence to track and improve animal welfare.

The Western College of Veterinary Medicine and the University of Saskatchewan’s Department of Computer Engineering are developing new tools to document and analyze animal-based indicators of on farm welfare, such as skin or tail lesions detected on swine carcasses at slaughter.

There are also 14 industry partners involved with support from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council.

Dr. Martyna Lagoda, post-doctoral fellow on Swine Behavior and Welfare, said this work is being done because consumers want to know that the animals raised for meat have had a good quality of life.

Click here to see more...

Trending Video

Episode 115: Home on the Range

Video: Episode 115: Home on the Range

We look at how high crop prices, driven in part by rising global food demand, biofuel incentives, and risk perspective and management, are encouraging the conversion of marginal grasslands into cultivated cropland. As more hay and pastureland is turned over to crop production, wildlife habitat becomes increasingly fragmented, leaving isolated “islands” of grass that may be too small to sustain functioning grassland ecosystems. We explore research using Alberta as a case study to understand the impact that conversion of hay and pasturelands into cropland could have on ecosystem intactness and biodiversity.