Heat Stress Detection


Addressing challenges in pork production through artificial intelligence and nutritional supplements for the benefit of animal welfare and sustainability.


"Project Pig Forte" : Pig Forte is set to focus on animal welfare and the profitability of farmers. Serket and Kanters together have defined Project Pig Forte to validate a solution to reduce heat stress of pigs via behavioral analysis and feed supplement intervention resulting in sustainable practices and improved farm productivity.


Furthermore, Serket and Kanters aim to develop an integrated service platform that automatically detects heat stress in pigs at an early stage and provides a targeted response with an alleviating supplement.

First, feedback from the behavioral analysis system of Serket is used to tailor and validate the existing Kanters supplement, Aeroforte, for pigs, and second, to optimize it over time for specific farm conditions and pig health. The integrated service platform should yield unique interventions at farm, pen, and pig levels.

PROJECT AT A GLANCE

Goals

•Detect heat stress with a min. 80% accuracy

•5% increase in yield for farmers

•Validated feed supplement to reduce heat stress

•Improved animal welfare according to farmers' assessment

Use Cases

•Collaboration project to evaluate feed additive against heat stress •Behavioral analysis of A.I. real-time monitoring

Infrastructure

•6 cameras and one NVR installed

•Edge server with NVIDIA T4 GPU

•Temperature and humidity sensors installed in departments

Methodology

•Location: The Netherlands

•Number of monitored pens: 6

•Number of monitored pigs/round: 72 pigs (12 pigs/pen)

•Age class: Finishing

•Monitoring rounds: 4

Outcomes

•A.I. algorithm identified eating and drinking animals with 90-95% accuracy

•Moving activity with 80-85% accuracy.

•The monitoring system was able to detect heat stress with 80-90% accuracy