SE2251335A1 - Method for surveillance and analysis of farm animals and arrangements for such surveillance and analysis - Google Patents

Abstract

A method for surveillance and analysis of animals is provided, the method comprising the steps of detecting an identification marker of an animal, associating said detected identification marker with an animal ID, detecting a growth indicator of the animal, associating the detected growth indicator with said animal ID, comparing the growth indicator with a predetermined growth target, and, if the growth indicator meets the growth target, generating an alert.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to a method for surveillance and analysis of animals and an arrangement for surveillance and analysis of animals.

BACKGROUND Breeding of livestock, such as pigs, is a large and increasing business. lt is a de- sire of the producers to make the industry more efficient and enable charging the highest possible price for the meat produced. From a societal point of view there is a need for expanded food production the coming decades as a response to both world population growth and changing eating habits in Asia and other parts of the world. ln order to streamline the production process and at the same time securing opti- mal animal welfare, surveillance of the animals is required in order to provide the correct feed, adjust the stable environment- such as temperature - correctly, detect sick or injured individuals, detecting animals well suited for breeding, and to deter- mine when an individual is ready for slaughter. This is traditionally performed by oc- ular inspection, which is time consuming and inaccurate, or mechanical weighing, which is time consuming and may be stressful to the animals.

The producer loses money because they lack a smart monitoring system for effi- cient grovvth monitoring of each individual animal. Animal feed is already a large ex- pense in production and has increased.

Further, manual weighing of animals is a heavy, dangerous and time-consuming work. When one weigh pigs manually, the pigs often scream so loudly that both the animals and the keepers can suffer hearing damage. lmproved working conditions are of great importance for the industry.

The younger generation of meat producers do not accept manual and analog chores, which are still standard on many farms today. ln order to attract workforce, the industry must adapt to and incorporate new technologies. lt will be necessary to invest in digitization in order to maximize the profit, and not lose its potential within the next generation.

From the above it is understood that there is room for improvements and the in- vention aims to solve or at least mitigate the above and other problems.

SUMMARY The invention is defined by the appended independent claims. Additional features and advantages of the concepts disclosed herein are set forth in the description which follows, and in part will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of the described technologies. The features and advantages of the concepts may be realized and obtained by means of the instruments and combinations partic- ularly pointed out in the appended claims. These and other features of the described technologies will become more fully apparent from the following description and ap- pended claims, or may be learned by the practice of the disclosed concepts as set forth herein. ln a first aspect, a method for surveillance and analysis of animals is provided. The method comprises the steps of detecting an identification marker of an animal, associating said detected identification marker with an animal ID, detecting a grovvth indicator of the animal, associating the detected grovvth indicator with said animal ID, comparing the growth indicator with a predetermined growth target, and, if the growth indicator meets the growth target, generating an alert. ln a second aspect, an animal surveillance and analysis arrangement is provided, the arrangement comprising a monitoring service configured to detect an identifica- tion marker of an animal and to detect a growth indicator of said animal. The ar- rangement further comprises a central unit configured to associate the detected identification marker and growth indicator with an animal ID, and a memory unit con- figured to store the identification marker, the animal ID and the growth indicator. ln a third aspect, an animal surveillance system is provided, comprising an animal surveillance and analysis arrangement, and an interface application installable in at least one user device. The interface application is in operative communication with the central unit of the animal surveillance and analysis arrangement. ln a fourth aspect, a computer software, which when run on processing means of an animal surveillance and analysis arrangement is configured to perform the above method.

One advantage of the system is that an early indication of individuals deviating from the desired grovvth curve/rate is detectable. lt enables early warnings of health problems, indications of effects related to different feed and not least identification of the best timepoint for slaughtering - a point of time when the individual animal weight is within the best paid weight range. Further, the system provides decision support for optimized feed consumption, which results in reduced cost of feed, as less feed is wasted, as well as securing that the animals get the right food for being well. lt is also advantageous that the animals are less exposed to stress, which can be experienced during manual weighing, and it provides an improved working environ- ment for the stable staff.

The arrangement provides an opportunity for the farm worker to monitor the ani- mals around the clock, and it also provides a possibility to consult an online vet for quick assessments of an animal's condition. lt is possible to monitor the animals at all times by means of an online interface. ln one embodiment, the arrangement 100 may be adapted to recognize also hu- mans, and thus provides a possibility to detect unauthorized persons in the produc- tion stables.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS ln order to best describe the manner in which the above-described embodiments are implemented, as well as define other advantages and features of the disclosure, a more particular description is provided below and is illustrated in the appended drawings. Understanding that these drawings depict only exemplary embodiments of the invention and are not therefore to be considered to be limiting in scope, the ex- amples will be described and explained with additional specificity and detail through the use of the accompanying drawings in which: Fig. 1 is a schematic view of a surveillance and analysis arrangement according to one embodiment, Fig. 2 is a schematic flowchart of a method for surveillance and analysis of ani- mals according to one embodiment.

Further, in the figures like reference characters designate like or corresponding parts throughout the several figures.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION Various embodiments of the disclosed methods and arrangements are discussed in detail below. While specific implementations are discussed, it should be under- stood that this is done for illustration purposes only. A person skilled in the relevant art will recognize that other components, configurations, and steps may be used without parting from the scope of the disclosure. ln the description and claims the word "comprise" and variations of the word, such as "comprising" and "comprises", does not exclude other elements or steps.

Hereinafter, certain embodiments will be described more fully with reference to the accompanying drawings. lt will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations can be made without departing from the inventive con- cept. Other embodiments will be apparent to those skilled in the art from considera- tion of the specification and practice disclosed herein. The embodiments herein are provided by way of example so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete, and will fully convey the scope of the inventive concept, and that the claims be con- strued as encompassing all equivalents of the present inventive concept which are apparent to those skilled in the art to which the inventive concept pertains. lf nothing else is stated, different embodiments may be combined with each other.

Fig. 1 shows an animal surveillance and analysis arrangement 100 according to one embodiment. The surveillance and analysis arrangement 100 is configured to monitor animals, e.g. pigs, in an animal stable. The arrangement 100 is further con- figured to detect a weight of individual animals, and associate the weight with that in- dividual. Thus, it is possible to detect when an animal has achieved slaughter weight.

The animal stable comprises a number of pens, every pen accommodating a number of animals. ln the case of pigs, every pen accommodates e.g. ten individu- als. The animal surveillance and analysis arrangement 100 comprises a monitoring service 101, which in the shown embodiment is a camera. However, the monitoring service may alternatively be any other kind of suitable sensor(s) 110, alone or in combination with the camera, such as microphone, infrared sensor or laser. A cam- era 101 is arranged over each animal pen or in in the roof of a stable with free-going animals, and in operative communication with a connection box 107. The communi- cation may be wired or wireless. Preferably, the arrangement comprises several connection boxes, each associated with a number of cameras. Preferably, each con- nection box is associated with 3-15 cameras, more preferred 5-10 cameras, and most preferred 8 cameras.

The connection boxes 107 are arranged to be in operative communication with a central unit 102. The communication may be wired or wireless.

The central unit 102 comprises a power supply 108 and a communication unit 104. The central unit 102 is preferably communicably coupled to a server (for exam- ple, such as a cloud server 105) via the internet. The central unit 102 or the server include a reference database 114 of historic measurements both from monitoring services 101 and controlled measures such as weight or individual lD:s. The data of the database 114 is collected from several installations of the animal surveillance and analysis arrangement 100.

Based on historic data and real-time data one or more mathematical algorithms are created and included in the surveillance and analysis arrangement 100. The ani- mal surveillance and analysis arrangement 100 may further comprise additional sen- sors 110 for monitoring of vital environmental conditions, such as temperature, air movement, sound, humidity, carbon dioxide, ammonia and sulfur.

The animal surveillance and analysis arrangement forms part of an animal surveil- lance system comprising an animal surveillance and analysis arrangement and an interface application installable in at least one user device. The interface application is configured to be in operative communication with the central unit 102 of the ani- mal surveillance and analysis arrangement 100.

The user device 106 is configured to communicate alerts to the user 109. The user device 106 is additionally or alternatively configured provide input data to the surveillance arrangement, such as user input data which may be target growth, tar- get weight, environmental input data such as air exchange rates, set temperature data, etc.

Fig. 2 shows a schematic flowchart of a method for surveillance of animals. The method comprises detecting 200 an identification marker of an animal. ln this docu- ment, an identification marker represents features detectable by the system, by which features individual animals may be recognized. The identification marker is not an applied sign, marking or similar such as a physical, e.g. painted or tattooed, marking. lnstead, the identification marker is in one embodiment a top view contour shape of the animal. The identification marker may also and/or alternatively be pig- mentation marks on the animals, ear position, tail position, horn position, or other in- dividual characteristics.

An image of an animal is captured by means of the camera 101. A processor 113 of the central unit 102 is configured to identify or calculate the identification marker, i.e., in this embodiment the top view contour shape, by means of image analysis. The identification marker is detected or obtained via the image of the animal captured by the camera 102.

The processor 114 is further configured to associate the identification marker with an animal ID such that each animal individual is recognizable by its top view contour.

The method further comprises detecting a growth lndicator of the animal. The growth indicator is e.g. the weight of the animal, which is estimated by means of the camera 101. Thereafter, the growth indicator is associated with the animal ID, and preferably stored in a memory such as the cloud service 105, or an internal 103 or external memory of the central unit 102.

The method further comprises a step of comparing the growth indicator with a predetermined growth target, e.g. comparing the estimated weight with a predeter- mined target weight. If the growth indicator, i.e. the estimated weight, meets the growth target, i.e. target weight, an alert is transmitted by a communication unit 104 of the central unit 102. The alert may be transmitted e.g. to a user device or user ter- minal 106. The alert comprises preferably the animal ID of the animal in question, and notifies a user 109 that the animal has reached the predetermined slaughter weight.

The above mentioned method steps are repeated continuously in order to detect when individual animals are ready for slaughter. ln the subsequent executions of the method, the step of associating the identification marker with an animal ID is ex- changed for a step of comparing the detected identification marker with stored iden- tification markers in order to determine the associated animal ID. ln one embodiment, the growth indicator is one or more of a length, a width, a ra- tio of length/width of the animal, a classification according to the Optifom standard. The length/width ratio is indicative of the body composition of the animal. An animal with a comparatively larger length/width ratio is more muscular compared to an ani- mal with a smaller length/width ratio, which is indicative of the animal being less muscular, and having more fat. By providing this information to the farmer, he/she may take informed decisions on when to slaughter specific animals. The arrange- ment may be configured to provide an alert indicating when a certain animal is ready for slaughter based on length/width ratio of the animal. ln one embodiment, the animal surveillance system is integrated with a feed sys- tem. The method may in this embodiment further comprise a step of comparing the detected growth indicator with one or more threshold values, wherein each thresh- old value corresponds to a predetermined type of animal feed. l.e. when the animal has reached a certain weight, or when a majority of the animals in a pen has reached a certain weight, the feed system is configured to provide a feed suitable for animals of that weight to the feed station 112 of that pen.

The feed station 112 may be provided with sensors such as one or more of a weight sensor, a camera, a microphone, a temperature sensor, configured to detect when an animal is eating, and how much each individual animal is eating. The feed station sensor(s) is in operative communication with the central unit 102. The central unit 102 is configured to use input data from both the feed station sensor and the monitoring service 101 in order to determine feeding patterns for each individual an- imal.

An advantage of an integrated feed system is that a reduced climate footprint is enabled. As an example, the climate footprint may be reduced by as much as 85,500 C02 equivalents for an annual production of 5,000 pigs by optimizing the distributed feed amount. Feed consumption accounts for 54% of the climate footprint and ma- nure management for 36% of the pig production, and constitutes thus a significant part of the production's emissions.

Further benefits of the arrangement and the related method is that cost/profit may be optimized by optimizing the slaughter weight. lt provides the user 109 with a pos- sibility to plan for the slaughter occasion by being able to track the weight curves of each animal individual. The arrangement may be configured to provide an estimated slaughter date based on the individually obtained weight curves for each animal.

Further, a cost is associated with manual weighing of animals, which may be avoided by the automatic weighting of the arrangement.

The arrangement provides a possibility to detect if an animal is hurt, injured or sick, e.g. by registering which individuals are visiting the feed station 112, and how often. lf an animal does not eat, it is a sign that it may be hurt, injured or sick. This provides a possibility for the user 109 to attain to hurt, injured or sick animals faster, which in turn may reduce mortality. Early detection of health deviations can also help early treatment that in turn can help to avoid use of antibiotics and thus help to counteract the spread of antibiotic resistance. ln case of pigs, it is possible to find acutely ill pigs due to tail biters faster than conventionally.

The various embodiments described above are provided by way of illustration only and should not be construed to limit the invention. For example, the principles herein may be applied to any suitable animal farming. Those skilled in the art will readily recognize various modifications and changes that may be made to the pre- sent invention Without following the example embodiments and applications illus- trated and described herein, and without departing from the scope of the present disclosure.

Claims (1)

1. CLAIMS A method for Surveillance and analysis of animals comprising the steps of: a) detecting (200) an identification marker of an animal, b) associating (201) said detected identification marker with an animal ID, c) detecting (202) a grovvth indicator of the animal, d) associating (203) the detected growth indicator with said animal ID, e) comparing (204) the growth indicator with a predetermined growth tar- get, and f) if the growth indicator meets the growth target, generating (205) an alert. The method according to claim 1, further comprising storing the associated identification marker, growth indicator and animal ID in a memory unit. The method according to claims 1 or 2, further comprising repeatedly per- forming steps a) - t), where step b) is exchanged for a step b1): comparing the detected identification marker with stored identification markers in order to determine the associated animal ID. The method according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the alert indicates that the animal associated with said animal ID is ready for slaughter. The method according to any one of the preceding claims, further compris- ing a step of comparing the detected growth indicator with one or more threshold values, wherein each threshold value corresponds to a predeter- mined type of animal feed. The method according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the step of detecting an identification marker of an animal, and/or the step of detect- ing a growth indicator of said animal is performed by means of a monitoring service (101), preferably comprising one of a camera or a combination of a camera and one or more other sensor(s) (110). The method according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein said growth indicator is one or more of: weight, length, width, length/width ratio, classification according to Optifom standard of said animal. The method according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the iden- tification marker is a top view contour shape of the animal. The method according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein said ani- mal is a livestock animal, such as pig, cattle, goat, poultry. An animal surveillance and analysis arrangement (100) comprising: - a monitoring service (101) configured to detect an identification marker of an animal and to detect a growth indicator of said animal, - a central unit (102) configured to associate the detected identification marker and growth indicator with an animal ID, and - a memory unit (103) configured to store the identification marker, the ani- mal ID and the growth indicator. The arrangement according to claim 10, comprising two or more sets of a monitoring services (101), each set being configured to be arranged in con- nection with an animal pen, and each set being configured to surveille the animals of the respective pens. The arrangement according to claims 10-11, wherein the monitoring service (101) comprises a camera or a camera in combination with one or more other sensor(s) (110). The arrangement according to claims 10-12, further comprising a communi- cation unit (104) configured to communicate one or more of the identification marker, the animal ID and the growth indicator to one or more of a cloud ser- vice (105), a user terminal (106), an external processing unit, an external memory unit. An animal surveillance system comprising an animal surveillance and analy- sis arrangement according to claims 10-13, and an interface application in- stallable in at least one user device (106), the interface application being in operative communication with the central unit (102) of the animal surveil- lance and analysis arrangement (100). Computer software which when run on processing means of an animal sur- veillance and analysis arrangement (100) optionally according to any of claims 10-13, is configured to perform the method defined in any of claims 1- 9.