Farms.com Home   News

Video Offers Increased Animal Welfare Oversight

Researchers with the Western College of Veterinary Medicine are demonstrating the value of using video top monitor animal welfare and ultimately improve meat quality. Research conducted by the Western College of Veterinary Medicine has found using body cameras to support remote animal welfare assessments is a viable option.
 
Dr. Yolande Seddon, an Assistant Professor of Swine Behaviour and Welfare and NSERC Industrial Research Chair in Swine Welfare, says we'll always need live assessments but also having the virtual ability allows increased oversight.
 
Clip-Dr. Yolande Seddon-Western College of Veterinary Medicine:
 
We could maybe reduce some costs because you could have an assessment done on farm remotely as opposed to having someone come in in person. If necessary, there could be increased frequency of assessment where needed, again for that oversight of barns in their own management of their animals and whether that is part of an assurance scheme requirement or an internal auditing process by companies.
 
In terms of being able to automate this, certainly if we were seeing that there was value in assessing animal welfare on carcasses at slaughter, we would need that process to be automated because of the volume of animals that are processed in an abattoir coming from across the country.
 
That would mean that we could automate the feedback and the understanding of the knowledge that is coming off these animals in order to have a continuous feedback loop. I would also add there is a lot of research going into artificial intelligence and how can imaging systems pick up behaviors of animals and potentially marks on animals or indicators and therefore further down the line we might be able to automate some of this data capture on farm to help with management of the animals and build up data on animal care.
Source : Farmscape

Trending Video

How Can We Grow More Food With Less Impact?

Video: How Can We Grow More Food With Less Impact?

For over two decades, Dr. Mitloehner has been at the forefront of research on how animal agriculture affects our air and our climate. With deep expertise in emissions and volatile organic compounds, his work initially focused on air quality in regions like California’s Central Valley—home to both the nation’s richest agricultural output and some of its poorest air quality.

In recent years, methane has taken center stage in climate discourse—not just scientifically, but politically. Once a topic reserved for technical discussions about manure management and feed efficiency, it has become a flashpoint in debates over sustainability, regulation, and even the legitimacy of livestock farming itself.

Dr. Frank Mitloehner, Professor and Air Quality Specialist with the CLEAR Center sits down with Associate Director for Communications at the CLEAR Center, Joe Proudman.