I-WatchBroiler

Commercial broiler production requires continuous health and welfare assessment as it is critical to assure good flock performance, profitability and meat quality. In addition, animal welfare plays an increasingly important role granting competitiveness and access to international markets as some countries or premium labeling programs require verification of optimal welfare. Commercial broilers are visually evaluated on daily basis, but up to the present no method was available to quantify in a simple, reliable and standardized manner the health and welfare status of the flocks. Due to the large number of birds, and the fast turnover of the production cycles in meat poultry, flock health and welfare assessment is particularly difficult.

The i-WatchBroiler App developed by scientists at Ikerbasque and Neiker-Tecnalia (Spain) is a tool specifically developed for broiler health and welfare assessment. The i-WatchBroiler allows assessing critical health and welfare indicators in broiler flocks in a simple and standardized manner. It does not require changes in the routine farm evaluation. The method of assessment is based on the transect methodology (Marchewka et al., 2013, 2014). The i-WatchBroiler App enables broiler producers to easily collect the incidence of the most relevant health and welfare indicators in a simple manner at the time of a regular health inspection. This app includes the possibility of recording the frequency of birds with relevant welfare and health deficiencies, such as the incidence of immobility, severe lameness, injuries, unwanted behaviors or other serious health issues in the flocks without catching or disturbing the birds. The App allows the user to customize the scoring to include additional parameters of interest or to score birds with multiple problems. Data collection is done in a comfortable touch –screen mode, while the evaluator is slowly walking along the house and observing birds, as is usually conducted in routine walks through the production house. The incidence of the health and welfare issues collected is automatically standardized by the number of birds in the flock at the time of assessment and the number of transects conducted.

i-WatchBroiler App allows entering relevant information, such as birds strain, age, housing and management conditions, expanding significantly the applications of the app and potential for further data analysis (for example to compare results in management changes, diets, lighting programs etc). Date, time, geographic location, and weather conditions at the time of inspection are automatically collected if working in the on-line mode. The app generates a report and warning message if mean incidences of the indicator for such inspection is significantly above of the historical mean (calculated from previous flock evaluations). These outputs are available immediately after finishing data collection. Full database consisting of all the collected over time information is saved in CSV format (.XLS compatible) and can be further analyzed. Continuous, easy access to reliable, historical and current information on the health and welfare status of birds in relation to management and environmental factors, , is an important asset for decision-making process of the companies, helping improving birds´ health and welfare based on a methodological and standardized data collection.

商品肉鸡生产需要持续的健康和福利的评估，因为它保证良好的羊群表现，盈利能力和肉品质量是至关重要的。此外，动物福利起着授予竞争力和进入国际市场，一些国家或溢价标签计划需要验证的最佳福利越来越重要的作用。商品代肉鸡的视觉计算每日的基础上，但到现在都没法是提供一个简单，可靠，标准化的方式来量化的鸡群的健康和福利状况。由于大量鸟类和肉类家禽生产周期的周转速度快，羊群的健康和福利的评估显得尤为困难。

科学家在Ikerbasque和Neiker-TECNALIA（西班牙）开发的I-WatchBroiler应用程序是专门为肉鸡健康和福利的评估开发工具。在i-WatchBroiler允许评估一个简单的标准化方式肉鸡群重要的健康和福利的指标。它不需要改变常规农场的评价。评估的方法是基于断面的方法（Marchewka等人，2013年，2014年）。在i-WatchBroiler应用使肉鸡生产商能够以一种简单的方式在例行健康检查时很容易地收集最相关的健康和福利指标的发生率。这个程序包括记录的鸟类有相关的福利和健康的缺陷，如不动，严重跛行，伤害，有害的行为或成群其他严重的健康问题的发生频率没有赶上或干扰鸟类的可能性。该应用程序允许用户定制的得分，以包括所关注的其他参数或得分的鸟与多个问题。数据收集在一个舒适的触感-screen模式完成，而评估器缓慢沿着房子行走和观察鸟类，如通常在常规步行穿过产家进行。所收集的健康和福利问题的发生是由鸟羊群在评估时的数量，并进行断面的数量自动标准化。

的i-WatchBroiler应用允许输入有关的信息，如鸟类应变，年龄，居住和管理的条件下，扩大了应用程序和用于进一步的数据分析显著的应用潜力（例如，以管理的改变，饮食，照明方案等比较结果） 。日期，时间，地理位置和天气状况在检查时，如果工作在在线模式被自动收集。该应用程序会生成一份报告，并警告信息，如果这样的检查指标的平均发病率是显著高于历史均值（从以前的羊群评估计算）。完成数据采集后立即这些输出可用。全数据库包括所有所收集的随着时间的信息被保存在CSV格式（.XLS兼容），并可以进一步分析。持续的，容易获得鸟类有关的管理和环境因素的健康和福利状况的可靠的，历史的和当前的信息，对决策的公司的过程中，帮助改善birds'健康和福利基础上的重要资产一个方法和标准化的数据收集。