PhD student, Juliette Schillings, has published two papers! The first is in in Frontiers in Animal Science. It is a review paper exploring different precision livestock farming technologies and the possible ways in which they may help animal welfare. Part of the abstract is written below with the full paper open access here.
“Using the Five Domains Model (FDM) as a framework, the aim is to explore the potential of PLF to help address animal welfare and to discuss potential welfare benefits and risks of using such technology. A variety of technologies are identified and classified according to their type (sensors, bolus, image or sound based, Radio Frequency Identification (RFID)), their development stage, the species they apply to, and their potential impact on welfare. While PLF technologies have promising potential to reduce the occurrence of diseases and injuries in livestock farming systems, their current ability to help promote positive welfare states remains limited, as technologies with such potential generally remain at earlier development stages. This is likely due to the lack of evidence related to the validity of positive welfare indicators as well as challenges in technology adoption and development. Finally, the extent to which welfare can be improved will also strongly depend on whether management practices will be adapted to minimize negative consequences and maximize benefits to welfare.”
The second paper is a comment piece for CABI Agriculture and Bioscience and explores the ethics of PLF. This can be read here.