Monitoring Pig Structural Soundness and Body Weight in Pork Production Systems Using Computer Vision Approaches

As the global demand for products from food-producing animals increases with greater household economic capacity, there is an increased emphasis on the development of precision technologies for monitoring the health, product production, and wellbeing of these animals. The present review focuses on pork production. Using these systems is advantageous for enhancing pork production efficiency when trained personnel utilize these technologies to full capacity and have objective, automated, and uninterrupted streams of data collection. While these systems have great potential for revolutionizing food animal production, the nascent stage of computer vision in precision technology has precluded its integration into traditional agricultural practices and systems. In this review paper, there is a focus on the need to (1) evaluate the performance and effective use of computer vision technologies to collect and evaluate reliable data from pork production enterprises; and (2) focus on the current state of sensor-based animal management using a data fusion approach to monitor pig health/performance. Many of these technologies are in various stages of development; therefore, these technologies have not been integrated into pork production or other food animal producing systems. Even though the focus of this review article is on the utilization of these technologies in pork production systems, these technologies are relevant in other food animal production systems, particularly dairy and poultry production. Therefore, we describe an approach that emphasizes the important need for computational capacity and speed, edge computing, data storage and transmission, and maintaining connectivity in rural settings.