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THE RESEARCH BEHIND OPTICFLOCK

       OpticFlock is an automated system for monitoring the welfare of broiler chickens (chickens bred for meat). It does not track individual birds, but works by analyzing the patterns of movement made by a whole flock. As it delivers flock-level information, OpticFlock is particularly suited to deployment on commercial broiler farms where decisions about vaccinations, drinker height, lighting etc. are taken at flock, not individual level and where flock level information is therefore most useful.

 

       OpticFlock’s ability to assess the welfare state of a flock is based on the repeated findings that healthy, high welfare flocks move differently from flocks containing a high % of birds with leg problems or are lame or suffering from an infection [1-6].  Healthy flocks not only move more (which could be due to many different factors such as light level) but they also show different statistical patterns in the way that they move. These same patterns have shown up on different farms in different countries and so are characteristic of flocks consisting of healthy, actively walking birds [7]. On the other hand, very different patterns of movements show up in flocks where there are welfare issues. For example, individual birds that had difficulty in walking were found to come from flocks with disturbed movements [8,9].

 

       OpticFlock can detect these flock differences at a very early stage - often when the birds only a few days old - so giving early warning that a flock may be at risk and helping farm staff to manage this critical first week of life.

References

[1] Dawkins, M.S., Lee, H.-J., Waitt, C.D. and Roberts, S.J. (2009) Optical flow patterns in broiler chickens as automated measures of behaviour and gait. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 119: 203-209https://doi.org/10.1016/j.applanim.2009.04.009

[2] Roberts, S.J., Cain, R. and Dawkins, M.S. (2012) Prediction of welfare outcomes for broiler chickens using Bayesian regression on continuous optical flow data.Royal Society Journal Interface 9: 3436-3443. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsif.2012.0594

[3] Dawkins, M.S., Cain, R. and Roberts, S.J. (2012) Optical flow,flock behaviour and chicken welfare. Animal Behaviour 84: 219-223. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2012.04.036

​ [4] Colles, F.M., Cain, R., Nickson, T., Smith, A., Roberts, S.J., Maiden, M.C.J., Lunn, D.,Dawkins, M.S. (2016) Monitoring chicken flock behaviour provides early warning of infection by human pathogen Campylobacter. Proceedings of the Royal Society B 283: article 20152323. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2015.2323

​[5] Dawkins, M.S., Roberts, S.J., Cain, R.J. Nickson, T., Donnelly, C.A. (2017) Early warning of footpad dermatitis and hock burn in broiler chicken flocks using optical flow, body weight and water consumption. Veterinary Record 180: 448 9-U60.  https://doi.org/10.1136/vr.104066

[6] Dawkins, M.S., Wang, L., Ellwood, S.A., Roberts, S.J. and Gebhardt-Henrich, S.G. (2021) Optical flow, flock behaviour and broiler chicken welfare in the UK and Switzerland. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 234: article105180. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.applanim.2020.105180

[7] Dawkins, M.S. (2024) Active walking in broiler chickens: a flagship for good welfare, a goal for smart farming and a practical starting point for automated welfare recognition. Frontiers in Veterinary Science (8 January 2024) Volume 10 - 2023  https://doi.org/10.3389/fvets.2023.1345216

[8] Dawkins, MS, Cain, R, Merelie, K, and Roberts, SJ. In search of the behavioural correlates of optical flow patterns in automated assessment of broiler chicken welfare. Appl Anim Behav Sci. (2013) 145:44–50. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.applanim.2013.02.001

[9] Gebhardt-Henrich, S., Stratmann, A. and Dawkins, M.S. (2021) Groups and individuals: optical flow patterns of broiler chicken flocks are correlated with the behaviour of individual birds. Animals 11(2): 568. https://doi.org/10.3390/ani11020568

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