Precision poultry farming: A review of sensor technologies and data analytics
Author(s): Jai Prakash
Abstract: The global poultry industry is under constant pressure to enhance productivity, efficiency, and animal welfare while minimizing environmental impact and antibiotic use. Precision Poultry Farming (PPF) emerges as a pivotal strategy to address these multifaceted challenges by leveraging advanced sensor technologies and data analytics to monitor, control, and optimize production processes in real-time. This review provides a comprehensive overview of the core components of PPF. We discuss the suite of sensor technologies deployed in commercial flocks, including environmental sensors (for temperature, humidity, and air quality), acoustic sensors for monitoring vocalizations indicative of health and stress, video and imaging systems for tracking behavior and growth, and wearable sensors for individual bird monitoring. The integration of this continuous, high-volume data stream often termed "Big Data" with sophisticated data analytics is explored. Techniques such as machine learning algorithms are increasingly used to translate raw data into actionable insights, enabling early disease detection, predicting performance outcomes, optimizing feed and water consumption, and automatically assessing welfare indicators like lameness or plumage damage. While the potential of PPF to revolutionize poultry production is immense, significant challenges remain, including the high initial investment, the need for robust and durable sensors in harsh farm environments, data interoperability issues, and the requirement for user-friendly decision support tools. Nevertheless, the rapid advancement of sensor technology and computational power positions PPF as an indispensable tool for the sustainable and welfare-conscious intensification of the global poultry industry.
