Recipient Organization
UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA
200 D.W. BROOKS DR
ATHENS,GA 30602-5016
Performing Department
Poultry Science
Non Technical Summary
The United States (US) is the world's largest poultry producer with the combined value of poultry production (meat and eggs) and sales of $42.7 billion per year. However, the US poultry producers are facing grand challenges of animal health issues, welfare concerns, environmental impacts, and weather extremes. The outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza between 2014 and 2015 led to losses of more than 50 million chickens in the US; animal welfare concern is driving the primary US food retailers and restaurants to source cage-free eggs and welfare cared broilers; the hurricane damages led to losses of multi-million chickens along the US southeastern coastal states in 2018. Those challenges are damaging the poultry industry in the US and the world. In response to those challenges, this project plans to develop smart sensor network and energy systems for sustainable poultry production. The systems will optimize weather forecasting, power management, environmental control, floor litter/bedding quality, house inlet and outlet air quality, thereby improving the sustainability of the poultry production.
Animal Health Component
50%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
30%
Applied
50%
Developmental
20%
Goals / Objectives
Integrating technological advances into poultry systems. This will include collaborative research on incorporating engineering and technology to enhance system efficiency and sustainability through infrastructure development of blockchain production.
Establishing and adopting husbandry practices to a changing industry landscape. This collaborative research will encompass a multi-disciplinary approach to create a resilient poultry production system through optimal management of inputs and outputs in an ethically responsible manner.
Project Methods
The proposed project will consist of research farm test and field verification on a commercial poultry farm in Georgia, the US largest broiler production state. The early version of the sensor network system will be installed and tested in a breeder house on the UGA poultry research farm in Athens, GA. Broiler breeders are parent chicken that produces fertilized eggs for hatching chicks of meat chicken. Breeders usually stay up to 65 weeks (wk) in a confined poultry house, where the environment and management have a vital impact on their health and welfare. In this proposed study, 10 pens/units (each with 33 breeders, i.e., 30 layers and 3 roosters- Aviagen 708 or Cobb 500) will be raised from day 1 to day 455 (65-wk) for testing/evaluating the newly designed sensing system. The sensor network system verification will be conducted on a commercial broiler breeder house in South Georgia after solid data have been collected on UGA research farm.In the broiler breeder house on UGA poultry farm, six out of 10 pens will serve for the sensor network and energy systems test and the rest four pens will provide spare chickens in case of any injury or mortality. The same amount of bedding materials (pine shaving) will be used for all 10 pens. The footpad status of birds on the age of d1, week (wk) 1, wk3, wk5, wk10, wk15, wk20, ---, wk60, and wk65 in each pen will be scored manually as the reference database. The egg production and hatchery rate in each pen will be recorded for analyzing the effect of floor heating on production efficiency. The thermal cameras will be programed to monitor the floor temperature difference over time in treatment and control pens. The poultry behaviors such as laying, dust bathing, and foraging will be analyzed to see if floor heating has any effect on the animal natural behaviors. Poultry behaviors-based images/information will be analyzed with an optimized deep learning algorithm based on existing methods (e.g., "eYeNamic" system developed by Aydin et al. (2010) and Berckmans and Norton (2016)) to evaluate gait score or footpad lesion. The footpad lesion identification method will be verified in the commercial breeder house in South Georgia.Besides, an electrostatic charging air filtration (ECAF) subsystem will be designed and tested for filtering both inlet and outlet air during outbreak of infectious disease to reduce airborne dust (potential carrier of virus) transportation between poultry house and ambient air. This design may reduce risks of disease transportation from upwind poultry farms and impact on downwind farms during outbreak of animal disease such as avian influenza.