Data di Pubblicazione:
2018
Citazione:
A pilot study to detect coccidiosis in poultry farms at early stage from air analysis / G. Grilli, F. Borgonovo, E. Tullo, I. Fontana, M. Guarino, V. Ferrante. - In: BIOSYSTEMS ENGINEERING. - ISSN 1537-5110. - (2018 Feb). [Epub ahead of print] [10.1016/j.biosystemseng.2018.02.004]
Abstract:
Nowadays, the preventive use of antibiotics in intensive farming system is common and
this management practice lead to the spreading of drugs in the environment, contributing
to the phenomena of antibiotic resistance. For this reason, different professional figures
work on the development of drug reduction strategies. Due to the high priority of this issue,
early detection of any health problem is of great importance in intensive farming. Precision
Livestock Farming (PLF), through the combination of cheap technologies and specific algorithms,
can provide valuable and rapid information for farmers starting from the huge
amount of data that can be collected in real time at farm level. A prototype, able to give
information about air fingerprint, was developed and tested in an experimental poultry
farm in order to observe if air quality data were related to the presence of coccidiosis. Air
samples were collected once a week in Nalophan® bags and transported to the laboratory
for instrumental analysis. The prototype was able to discriminate between infected and
not infected pens at a very early stage, when only 250 oocysts g1 [faeces] (opg) were
present in one pen. These results were also confirmed by analysing air samples in a
commercial poultry farm, since all samples were correctly classified by the prototype in
infected or not infected pen. This pilot study has shown that this technology could be
installed in farms to continuously monitor health status of broilers, supporting farmers in
the sustainable management of their activities.
Tipologia IRIS:
01 - Articolo su periodico
Keywords:
precision livestock farming; poultry; coccidiosis detection; air quality; volatile organic compounds
Elenco autori:
G. Grilli, F. Borgonovo, E. Tullo, I. Fontana, M. Guarino, V. Ferrante
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