Automated health status intelligence for poultry and pig production

FARM-PROTECT Farm Monitor is RoboScientific’s automated health intelligence platform for housed poultry and pig production.

The system is designed to provide earlier warning of disease outbreaks and changes in flock or herd health status by monitoring volatile organic compounds, or VOCs, in the air of commercial production buildings. As disease, infection, stress or other biological changes begin to affect animals, the VOC profile in the house can also change. FARM-PROTECT is being developed to identify these early biochemical signals before problems become more visible or widespread.

FARM-PROTECT is more than a sensing device. It is designed to turn routine house and barn monitoring into actionable intelligence through a farmer and veterinary web/mobile platform supported by automated alerts. The aim is to help producers investigate sooner, seek veterinary input where needed and take more timely management decisions.

The platform is led by poultry, with applications for broilers, egg-laying hens and rearing pullets, and further poultry development planned for hatcheries and breeder flocks. Poultry is RoboScientific’s first commercial focus because of the urgent need for early disease detection in large, high-density flocks.

Pig production is the next major application and is closely aligned with the poultry platform. RoboScientific has already undertaken significant development work in pig health monitoring and is progressing the application towards practical use in commercial pig buildings. Automated barn air monitoring for pigs has the potential to provide earlier insight into respiratory challenge, gut-health change, disease pressure and wider herd-health status.

By combining automated air sampling, VOC sensor technology, machine-learning analysis and practical alerting tools, FARM-PROTECT is being developed to support earlier intervention, improved welfare, reduced losses and more resilient poultry and pig production.

The same health intelligence approach can also be extended into further livestock and agricultural applications, including bovine breath testing, dairy health monitoring and protected crop environments.