Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Poultry Industry

Global poultry industry scenario

The value of the worldwide poultry market increased significantly between 2022 and 2023, from $352.02 billion to $378.84 billion, representing a 7.6% CAGR. Experts predict that the poultry market will continue to expand and reach $487.39 billion by 2027, growing at a CAGR of 6.5% (research and markets,). Producing chicken on a big scale comes with several issues, including rising production costs, concerns about animal welfare, a manpower shortage, an increase in antibiotic resistance, and environmental effect.

Artificial intelligence (AI) has emerged as a crucial invention that may simplify complicated difficulties across numerous sectors to fulfill the changing demands of this market. These problems may be successfully handled by AI.

Artificial intelligence in poultry farming

Modern poultry farming incorporates AI to enhance chicken health monitoring and welfare. Utilizing machine vision, sound analysis, feeding behaviour and water intake tracking, animal activity monitoring, and radio frequency identification, AI-powered systems support poultry housing and management. Following are the AI applications at farm level to ease overall poultry rearing:

1. Smart farm management:

Big data plays a crucial role in poultry farming. However, monitoring the performance of each bird individually is a huge task. AI technology enables the monitoring of individual bird performance and stores the data in a cloud database using tags. Additionally, AI can assist in maintaining a database for ventilation, temperature, CO2 levels, ammonia levels, litter moisture, water quality, feed quality, and humidity. All this data can come handy in your mobile in the form of statistics and graphs.

2. AI for disease diagnosis:

By combining AI with a voice recognition system, it becomes possible to differentiate between bird distress calls and regular vocalizations. Researchers have developed systems that assess the conditions and welfare of broiler chickens using audio signals captured within poultry houses. These systems can detect illnesses such as laryngotracheitis, and even birds' responses to stress caused by temperature variations and ammonia levels (source: Carroll, 2018).

3. AI in Vaccination and medication:

Vaccination and medication are standard processes in poultry farming. AI-powered machines and sensors enable the monitoring of many data points simultaneously, significantly reducing the evaluation time required by humans. AI not only facilitates data collection but also enables result evaluation through analytics, providing comparative insights with statistical analysis.

4. AI usage for post-farm operations:

AI is being utilized in layer farming for egg grading and identification of quality eggs at a faster pace. Machine vision, combined with smart automation, has enhanced the quality of carcass processing and broiler meat packaging. Spectral-line imaging systems have demonstrated high accuracy in the pre-sorting application of broiler chickens (source: ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/PubMed/20460672).

Future poultry transportation systems may eliminate the transport of live birds to minimize stressors such as physical discomfort, abnormal social settings, and other factors (American Veterinary Medical Association, 2016).

In conclusion

The future of broiler and breeder production holds tremendous potential for transformational change. Innovation lies in adaptive AI and data-driven systems, alongside advancements in technologies. The AI systems in place can addressing challenges related to labour shortages, disease control, food safety, flock uniformity, environmental sustainability, and animal welfare.

In essence, artificial intelligence (AI) possesses the potential to revolutionize farming operations by enhancing the efficiency, resilience, and overall performance of poultry production.