Scott Lyle

The University of Surrey and global animal health firm, Zoetis, have launched the Veterinary Health Innovation Engine (vHive), a novel multi-disciplinary centre designed to promote the development and adoption of digital innovation in animal health.

In this report the authors discuss the recent revolutionary changes in data-management practices in livestock farming, driven by the continued intensification of livestock farming alongside the rapid expansion of the Internet of Things (IoT). The use of sensor-driven data collection in ‘Precision Livestock Farming’ now presents an excellent opportunity for the collection of big data, using automated data-capture methods which are stress-free for the animal, and efficient for the… Show more

In this report the authors discuss the recent revolutionary changes in data-management practices in livestock farming, driven by the continued intensification of livestock farming alongside the rapid expansion of the Internet of Things (IoT). The use of sensor-driven data collection in ‘Precision Livestock Farming’ now presents an excellent opportunity for the collection of big data, using automated data-capture methods which are stress-free for the animal, and efficient for the farmer.

The Data-Driven Business Model is applied in the context of precision livestock farming businesses, recognising the desired outcomes of using data and the challenges to be overcome in order for data-driven precision livestock farming businesses to succeed. There are a number of challenges raised regarding responsible use of data in order to meet the societal needs for increased food security, and consumer desire for increased traceability in the global food chain with improved animal welfare. Show less

Rapidly increasing world population growth is causing increasing concern about future food security. Resulting intensification of farming increases the risk and susceptibility of animals to production diseases, which are multi-factorial in origin.

Production diseases are estimated to cause 10-15% reduction in performance efficiency of pig and poultry farming, resulting in huge financial losses. Coccidiosis alone costs the US poultry industry over US$ 1.5 billion.

Communication… Show more

Rapidly increasing world population growth is causing increasing concern about future food security. Resulting intensification of farming increases the risk and susceptibility of animals to production diseases, which are multi-factorial in origin.

Production diseases are estimated to cause 10-15% reduction in performance efficiency of pig and poultry farming, resulting in huge financial losses. Coccidiosis alone costs the US poultry industry over US$ 1.5 billion.

Communication of scientific research is vital in raising public awareness on critical societal challenges like food security. However… this is not an easy task as subject matter can be highly complex with a diverse target audience. In order to improve communication, there are a number of important questions to be answered:

Where and when do audiences go online? What do they want to know? Where do they look for information? How could we communicate information across the audience? Where do social media fit in?

Novel ‘social listening’ digital techniques allow us to crawl the internet to measure exactly where audiences of interest go and what they are talking about. This offers a better understanding of professional challenges, industry insights and trends. We can then use social and community channels to enable stakeholder interaction and allow effective communication.

In February 2014, PROHEALTH and Brewlife launched their own proof-of-concept social listening campaign that spanned 12months of swine industry conversation in the UK and Belgium. What did we find? Show less

Zoetis led an industry-academic consortium team in a competitive, multi-stage bid process to win a $3M grant award to apply computer vision analysis techniques to animal behavior.