WO2021045617A1

WO2021045617A1 - Method and system for the management of production animals

Info

Publication number: WO2021045617A1
Application number: PCT/NL2020/050542
Authority: WO
Inventors: Antoon Willem Johan CLAESSENS
Original assignee: Piglets Trearment System B.V.
Priority date: 2019-09-06
Filing date: 2020-09-03
Publication date: 2021-03-11
Also published as: EP4025044A1; NL2023780B1

Abstract

The present invention pertains to a method and system for the management of a production animal living in a confined space, the method comprising operator means to impose a treatment of the production animal to support its growth, wherein the living of the production animal and the said treatment together result in one or more events in the confined space, the method further comprising assessing the one or more events, and concomitantly assessing an animal effectiveness of the production animal, determining a relationship between the one or more events and the animal effectiveness, and using the relationship to control the operator means to control a future treatment of the production animal to increase the animal effectiveness.

Description

METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR THE MANAGEMENT OF PRODUCTION ANIMALS

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention pertains to a method and system for the management of production animals. In particular the invention pertains to a method and system for use in the management of production animals living in a confined space, the method and system being directed at the control of operator means to increase the animal effectiveness.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

The management of production animals (live-stock) is largely automated these days, especially in the bio-industry. Feeding of the animals is highly automated as is climate control and other animal well-fare conditions. Also, monitoring of medical treatments is to an extent automated by using medicament administering and tracing methods and digital storage of these data, such as for example described in W02013/110624 (assigned to Piglets Treatments Systems BV, The Netherlands).

Also, technology to automatically monitor the growth of animals is known.

For example, WO 2005/034618 (assigned to AB Svenska Matanalys,

Sweden) discloses a method for monitoring the weight and other parameters of pigs in which method individual pictures are taken of each pig and simultaneously identification of the pigs is performed using data emitted by a chip in each pig.

WO2014/026765 (assigned to Holscher & Leuschner GMBH & Co, Germany) discloses a method wherein a mobile 3D camera is used within a stable to establish for each pig data corresponding to the weight and meat quality.

Next to this, WO 2019/068921 (assigned to A.W.J. Claessens) discloses a method for the management of a group of production animals kept in a confined space, the method comprising at multiple points in time during the period wherein the animals are kept in the confined space, for each individual animal of the said group, the automatic identification of the animal, establishment of a position the animal takes in the confined space, determination of a physical property of the animal, and the coupled storage of data corresponding to the identification, the position and the physical property in a memory that is operatively connected to the said animal. The technology described can also be used to identify individual animals in a group of animals.

Also, the Dutch firm NEDAP provides systems (commercially available as NEDAP Pork Sense) to individually monitor the growth of production animals by weighing each animal individually at regular times during its growth and adjust the feed of each individual animal in order to realise optimum growth. The system is effective but expensive and cannot be used in existing stables.

In other words, for each different aspect in the keeping of production animals such as pigs, diary and beef cattle, fish, poultry etc. automated systems are in place to monitor and control parameters in order to make sure output is maximized within the bounds and meets of the law and contractual obligations. OBJECT OF THE INVENTION

Despite the high level of automation in the keeping of production animals, and the various individual systems and methods known to retrieve data regarding the production animals during their lifetime, there is still a need for a method and system for an improved method and system to increase the animal effectiveness.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In order to meet the object of the invention a method for the management of a production animal living in a confined space has been devised, which method comprises operator means to impose a treatment of the production animal to support its growth (e.g. a human operator), wherein the living of the production animal and the said treatment together result in one or more events in the confined space, the method further comprising assessing the one or more events, and concomitantly assessing an animal effectiveness of the production animal, determining a relationship between the one or more events and the animal effectiveness, and using the relationship to control the operator means to control a future treatment of the production animal to increase the animal effectiveness.

The invention basically aims at improving the handlings in the space where the production animal lives in order to increase its effectiveness, i.e. its output as a production animal. At present, operator means can be largely divided in two groups, i.e. (partly) automated operating systems (such as feeders, climate systems etc) and human operators. They way both types of means operate is largely based on handbook knowledge regarding animal effectiveness in relation to a particular operation, and personal experience of actual human operators. However, such existing knowledge may not be available, or only partly available to optimally manage the production animals under particular circumstances (e.g. a particular type of stable, particular climate, particular genetic source, particular diseases, particular human operators etc). This may lead to a situation wherein treatment of the animals is sub-optimal, for example since it is a reaction to a clear negative outcome of management. What would be preferred is a method which is less reactive to a negative outcome that has already led to its (full blown) negative consequences, but wherein future operations can be controlled (beforehand), and also future events can be predicted more accurately, so that the treatment is more pro-active instead of purely reactive.

Applicant realised that inherently, the living of the production animal and the said treatment together result in one or more events in the confined space. Those events on their turn could be monitored (for example using methods and system known form the art as described here above in the Background Information section). When assessing at the same time an animal effectiveness of the production animal, a relationship between the one or more events and the animal effectiveness could be determined, for example using common Big Data technologies (i.e. the computational analysis of extremely large data sets to reveal patterns, trends, and associations, especially relating to behaviour and interactions). The established relationship on its turn could then be used to control the operator means to control a future treatment of the production animal to increase the animal effectiveness. As a mere example, the standard routing of an operator through an area comprising multiple animal facilities (such as stables) may unknowingly lead to the spread of disease (which may decrease animal effectiveness). If this relationship is known, the spread of disease can be anticipated by either forcing the operator to take another route next time, or by ensuring preventative medication to stop spreading of the disease when the same routing is chosen again. In both cases, the future treatment of the animals is pre-planned in order to increase animal effectiveness. As another example of an event, which may be relevant for example for pigs, is the time a mother animal makes herself available for her offspring to suckle milk. It may be that there is a relationship between this event and the effectiveness of the sow (how many piglets survive until weaning, health status of the weaned piglets, total weight of the piglets at weaning or any other parameters related to the effectiveness of the sow). If so, this could be used in future production cycles for relocation of piglets (e.g. relocate two piglets from sow A to sow B) in order to get an optimum match between the availability of milk and the piglets that are raised by each sow. Multiple other events may have influence on the animal effectiveness, such as for example the amount of feed taken in over time, the amount and type of labour for each individual animal, the medication an animal receives, the handlings on the stable or pen where the animals stays etc. etc. The essence of the invention is that it is not necessary beforehand to have knowledge of such relationships. If there is a relationship between an event, or multiple events and animal effectiveness in the sense of the invention, this relationship will be found by assessing the event(s) and concomitantly assessing the animal effectiveness. For the future production, the established relationship can then be used to control the operator means to control the treatment of the animal to increase the animal effectiveness.

In other words, apart from handbook knowledge and personal knowledge of an operator, for a particular situation many more hitherto unrevealed relationships between an event and animal effectiveness might exist, which relationship could be advantageously used to control the management, i.e. the operator means, to increase the output of the production animal. As a particular important event that is related to animal effectiveness, for example and advantageously when combined with events that are related to operator handlings, is the administration of a medicament, such as for example and most notably a vaccine or multiple vaccines. Using the present invention, applicant has found that in any herd there is a relationship between animal effectiveness and 1) the timing of administering a medicament (in particular a vaccine) in the sense of the age of the animal, the time of the day, the time after eating; and the timing of the administration in relation to the environmental conditions, in particular temperature and humidity, 2) the site of administration (IM, SC, IV, ID, TD in combination with position such as neck, back, leg etc), 3) the type of immunisation being either passive (via MDA through vaccinating the mother animal) or active (through vaccinating the animal to be protected itself), 4) notably also a relationship with the type of medicament, in particular for any vaccine, the origin of the antigen (strain, serotype, genotype; same as present in herd or not), the type of adjuvant (steering towards humoral or cellular response, or a combination of both), the amount of constituents (in particular the amount of antigen and adjuvant), the administration regime (one shot, prime-boost, three vaccination, period between consecutive vaccinations etc.). Also it was found that by using the current invention, an optimum type of animal can be selected for any given herd. It was found that some animals are better suited for one herd than another. This could for example be due to the inherent resistance against particular pathogens that are more present in one herd than another. Also, compliance with environmental conditions and type of food can be more relevant for one herd than another for animal effectiveness.

The current method can be used to optimise whatever is found to be important for effective growth, i.e. animal effectiveness. So not only actual growth itself but also more remote parameters such as total cost price per kg of meat (for a group of animals), or cost price per kg of meat for a particular (mother) animal, the carbon foot print of the production animal(s), the quality of meat etc.

In the present method, existing systems to retrieve data for production animals can be incorporated in whole or in part. For example, the systems and methods as known form the patent applications referred to here above in the Background Information section can be advantageously used, in whole or in part, when practicing the method of the invention. In particular, the systems and methods as known from W02013/110624 and WO 2019/068921 are particularly advantageous to this end and the text of these patent applications is herewith incorporated in toto by reference.

It is noted that optimum animal effectiveness (or optimum output) in the sense of the invention may be, but is not necessarily, fastest growth. It may be that form an economical point of view, a slower growth, but leading to higher quality meat is considered better than a fast growth. Also, animal effectiveness can be considered for a group of production animals as a whole, instead of assessing only each animal individually. It may for example be that for a group there is overall better effectiveness if some animals perform suboptimal (when considered individually). In any case, increased animal effectiveness can be considered from various standpoints such as weight, economics, animal welfare etc.

The invention is also embodied in system which comprises a production animal living in a confined space, operator means to impose a treatment of the production animal to support its growth, means to automatically assess an event that results from the living of the production animal and/or the said treatment, means to automatically assess an animal effectiveness of the production animal, determining means to determine whether there is a relationship between the one or more events and the animal effectiveness, and control means that based on the relationship control the operator means to control a future treatment of the production animal to increase the animal effectiveness. The above referred to means may for example be practically embodied in a central processing unit (CPU) programmed to perform the step. However, the actual embodiment of the means is not essential to the present invention. Such a system may be a self-contained stand-alone system but may also have its various components distributed over various systems and networks, wherein all components are operatively connected, for example via the internet and/or wireless connections.

DEFINITIONS

An animal effectiveness is a parameter that indicates the quality of an animal as a production animal, and is inherently related to net growth of the animal or its progeny, but not restricted to this parameter only. Typical animal effectiveness parameters are average daily weight gain (ADWG); time to slaughter; number, size or health of offspring; feed conversion, number of offspring per kg of feed, resistance to disease, behavior (social and in isolation), carbon foot print per kg meat, meat quality, responsiveness to medicine, required number of hours of manual labour per animal, health of an animal as established clinically (blood, urine, faeces etc.) or post-mortem at slaughter (blood, guts, other organs such as lungs, stomach, heart, etc.), intake of milk, in particular colostrum, for a newborn mammal, etc.

Concomitant means in connection with something else, not restricted to actually attached (for objects) or simultaneous (for events).

Treatment of a production animat to support its growth means all that is done around (i.e. in the environment) or directly to the animals to support its growth. The former category includes e.g. handlings of a human operator such a cleaning stables, personal hygiene, the use of tools in a stable, but may also include machine operations such as climate control etc. The latter includes e.g. providing feed and medicaments to animals, grouping animals, repositioning animals, relocating animals, selection of animals (for breeding, slaughter, nourishment) etc. Operator means are any means to impose an action. The action may be done by a human operator or a machine operator such as a climate control unit in a stable.

An event is something that happens or takes place, which may be a routine action or something that is unusual or particularly important. Its occurrence may apply to a happening without intent, volition, or plan so just an encounter that happened by chance. Typically, in the keeping of production animals an event implies an occurrence having antecedent cause such as operator handling, particular animal behavior, sudden climate change etc. An event may typically influence the growth of an animal by having a direct or indirect effect on the growth of the animal. Typical examples are primary events such as feed intake and amount of physical exercise that have a direct effect on growth, but other events such as climate, intake of medicaments, the body temperature of the animal, stress, heart rate, etc. that have an indirect effect on growth. Also, the difference for each of these events that arise over a period of time can be defined as an event. For example, whereas the heart rate at a certain moment in time is difficult to link to growth, the difference in heart rate over time is more easily linked to growth since it is known how the heart rate varies with the weight of an animal.

Determining a relationship between two variables is to find a statistically significant relationship between these two variables based on which knowing one variable means that the other one can be determined using the relationship by applying mathematical regression. A statistically significant relationship in the sense of this application exists when the correlation coefficient (which quantifies the degree of change of one variable based on the change of the other variable) is at least 0.8. A preferred correlation coefficient is 0.9 or greater (e.g. 0.91, 0.92, 0.93, 0.94, 0.95, 0.96, 0.97, 0.98, 0.99 or even 1) which represents a very strong relationship.

A production animal (also referred to as live-stock) is any animal that is kept to raise meat, fibre, protein, milk, eggs, wool, skin or other products for use by humans, as opposed to companion animals which are kept for primarily for a person's company, protection, or entertainment. The keeping of production animals includes day-to-day care, selective breeding, and the raising of animals. Typical production animals are porcine, bovine, ovine, caprine, fish, and poultry.

Nourishing means are means that provide an animal with feed, other substances and conditions necessary for growth, health, and good condition.

A confined space can be any closed or semi-closed area designed to restrict, and preferably prevent, the free movement of an animal to an area outside of the confined space, such as a farm, stable, paddock, fenced land, a container, sea pen etc.

Identification of an animal means that the animal can be identified as a unique animal, at least distinct from other animal present in the same group of animals. Data corresponding to an identification can be for example a name, a number etc. The position an animal takes in a space at a certain point in time is the geographical location the said animal has in that space at that point in time. Data corresponding to a positon can be a number or set of numbers (e.g. geographical codes) or any other means of identifying the location (such as for example a name of a box in a stable).

A physical property of an animal is any property than depends on the physical qualities of the animal. Such a property may be for example a dimension (length, height, width, volume), shape, weight, colour, temperature, motion (ability to move and/or actually performed movements), any bodily fluid parameter, respiratory rate, composition of excretions (faces, urine, respiratory air and fluids, etc), but may even be as simple as "being present alive" in the confined space. Data corresponding to a physical property is typically a number or set of numbers, but may also be an operator ("Yes" or "No") or any other denominator.

Medical treatment means the management and care of a subject animal to combat disease or disorder. Medical treatment in particular includes the use of prescription medicaments and wound closing devices such as surgical glue, sutures, and staples. Data corresponding to a medical treatment is typically the type and amount of medicament that is administered at a certain point in time, or any other medical operation performed on the animal at that point in time.

Feed treatment means the provision of feed (which can also be denoted as food) to an animal or to nourish as if by feed. Data corresponding to feed treatment is typically the type and amount of feed provided at a certain point in time.

Animal welfare means how an animal is coping with the conditions in which it lives. An animal is in a good state of welfare if it is healthy, comfortable, well nourished, safe, able to express innate behavior, and if it is not suffering from unpleasant states such as pain, fear, and distress. Parameters by which animal welfare can be measured are the general impression the animal provides, the presence of wounds, its ability to freely move, the number of dead animals in the neighborhood of the animal, the presence of bite marks etc.

Regulatory data are data provided by an independent committee to regulate activities or the use of certain products. Examples are marketing authorisations for medicaments (the EMA being an example of a committee that provides the regulatory data), quality labels such as "Biologisch" and "Demeter" (for which the European Committee is the independent committee), "Bio Suisse", "Beter Leven", "USDA Quality approved" etc, and licenses provided by governmental organizations such as a license to keep a number of animals, a license to produce an amount of dung or nitrogen, ammonia or other substance.

Data being coupled means that they are stored or presented in a combined way, such that they can be analysed (automatically or by a human operator) for the presence of one or more operative relations. Coupled data is also referred to as shared data, i.e. data that can be processed in combination due to shared accessibility.

A medicament is any substance or composition of matter able to prevent, treat, ameliorate or cure a disease or disorder. Typical medicaments used for live-stock are antibiotics, vaccines, anti-inflammatory agents, muscle- relaxants and other small molecule pharmaceuticals.

To connect operatively is to establish a working relationship between two parts.

A memory is any unit that comprises means for storing data, being present at a remote location or locally, e.g. on a local computer, handheld device or in an identification means typically used for identification of a production animal such as an ear tag, implant, bolus or a combination of any of these. The term is not restricted to any type of unit and can e.g. be an RFID chip, a magnetic chip or any other electronic memory, in particular for example an EEPROM, RAM, NVM or FLASH memory.

Automatic means without operator intervention. An automatic action may however be operator initiated or ended.

EMBODIMENTS OF THE INVENTION

In a first embodiment of the method according to the invention, the relationship between the one or more events and the animal effectiveness is used to control a future treatment if said one or more events and the animal effectiveness have a correlation coefficient of at least 0.8, or even at least 0.81, 0.82, 0.83, 0.84, 0.85, 0.86, 0.87, 0.88, 0.89, 0.9, 0.91, 0.92, 0.93, 0.94, 0.95, 0.96, 0.97, 0.98, or even 0.99 or higher. The most simple correlation coefficient to be determined is the so called Pearson correlation coefficient (PCC), also referred to as Pearson's r, the Pearson product- moment correlation coefficient (PPMCC) or the bivariate correlation. Other correlation coefficients however are also commonly known in the art and may be more robust than the Pearson correlation in the sense that they are more sensitive to nonlinear relationships between parameters. Which coefficient in the end gives the most effective result is a matter of routine experimentation.

In another embodiment of the method according to the invention, the animal effectiveness assessed is chosen from the group consisting of average daily weight gain (ADWG); total weight gain; time to slaughter; number of offspring per mother animal; weight of offspring; health of offspring; feed conversion, number of offspring per kg of feed provided to mother animal; resistance to disease; predefined behavior; carbon foot print per kg of meat; meat quality; responsiveness to medicine; milk intake; colostrum intake; and required number of hours of manual labour per animal.

In yet another embodiment of the method according to the invention, in addition to the relationship between the one or more events and the animal effectiveness, a predetermined relationship between the one or more events and the animal effectiveness is used to control the operator means to control a future treatment of the production animal to increase the animal effectiveness. A predetermined relation that can be used in the method of the invention is for example the relationship between the Body Condition Score of a sow (see Young and Aherne in: Advances in Pork Production (2005), Volume 16, pg. 299-313) and its milk production, i.e. if such a relationship is known for the sows assessed. If not, it may be established on the go, for example by using the current invention to assess whether there is a relation in the sense of the invention, and if yes, what the relation is.

In a further embodiment of the former embodiment, the predetermined relationship between the one or more events and the animal effectiveness is chosen from any known relationship between feed intake and growth, behaviour and growth, climate and growth, disease and growth, medicament intake and growth, body condition and growth.

In still another embodiment the future treatment is imposed by a human operator, for example a person that takes care of the daily management of the animals or a person that has a more specialised function such as a vet.

In a further embodiment of the former embodiment, the human operator is instructed to impose a treatment chosen form the group that consists of routing through the confined space; treatment of animals including one or more of administering a medicament, inseminate, relocate (heaviest, most healthy piglets near walls were climate is less optimal; smaller less healthier piglets where climate is optimal) or select an animal; personal hygiene handling; space hygiene handling including one or more of cleaning a stable or its surroundings, and closing a stable from its environment; the use of tools.

Regarding the administration of a medicament such as for example a vaccine, the following may be the result of applying the current invention: based on existing knowledge (relationship between vaccination and disease prevention and thus animal effectiveness) a standard scheme is determined for vaccination. By tracking the events afterwards (site reactions, growth, disease occurrence etc) it may be that for some animals, vaccination according to the standard scheme is not optimal. Once the relationship is known, for example by additionally applying knowledge form other groups of animals, future vaccination can de controlled per individual animal to increase effectiveness. As another possibility, quality of vaccines or other medicaments can be monitored by tracking the events. This could lead to future treatments wherein different medicaments (for the same treatment) are chosen for different stables or animals, different regions, different countries, different seasons etc., for example different types of vaccines (different antigen, different adjuvant), or for example different vaccination regimes (intramuscular vs intradermal vs subcutaneous, single shot vs prime-boost, mother vaccination vs offspring vaccination, age at vaccination etc.), a different operator or vet etc. Regarding the latter, it could for example be that a relationship is found between the human operator applying the medicament and the animal effectiveness. This means that for any future treatment, the best operator can be prescribed by the system. As yet another example, it could be that there is a relationship between the effectiveness of a medicament towards growth and other parameters such as climate, feed, stress etc. Using the invention, this can all be revealed and effectively used to control future treatment.

In again another embodiment the future treatment is climate control. As is commonly known, climate has a strong influence on animal effectiveness in its broadest sense and thus, when using the current invention, climate control is very effective in order to optimise animal effectiveness. In yet another embodiment the future treatment is automatic climate control. In a further embodiment the climate is controlled by adjusting one or more properties of the air in the space where the animal lives, chosen from the group consisting of temperature; relative humidity; particles per volume; type of particles in the air; relative content of gases, such as CO2, O2, NH3, CH4, H2S, and/or CO; and air flow, all of which may have influence (depending i.a. on the type of animal, its breed, the environment etc) on animal effectiveness.

Again, in another embodiment the future treatment is the automatic provision of feed, for which the same can be said as for climate.

In a further embodiment the provision of feed is adjusted by adjusting the amount of nutrients in the feed and/or the physical appearance of the feed (more or less feed, other nutrient density, temperature, consistency (different texture, grain size, solid vs liquid, more water etc), or for example feed treated differently to release certain nutrients (such as by fermenting). Means to alter the feed to influence the nutritional value per kg are commonly known in the art.

In still another embodiment the future treatment is the administering of a medicament, in particular the vaccination of the production animal, the potential implications of which have been described here above (page 14) and here below at the end of the introductory part of the description.

In yet again another embodiment the animal is part of a group of multiple animals kept in the confined space, and that for each animal in the group the method is applied individually. This embodiment is suitable for a type of animal wherein the animal effectiveness of each animal can be optimized without significantly negatively influencing the effectiveness of other animals in the group. This does not only depend on the type of animal, but also on the type of space where the animals are kept and on events that happen during the growth of the animals such as extreme (non-normal) temperatures due to the weather, outbreak of a disease etc. In a further embodiment the method is used for obtaining an increase in the animal effectiveness of the group of production animals as a whole. In this embodiment the animal effectiveness is related to the group of animals as a whole and not to individual animals within that group. This is advantageous for those types of production wherein animals are not picked individually at time of slaughter, but all (or the vast majority) of animals in a particular stable (or any other space) are slaughtered more or less at the same point in time. This is typical for pigs and fish. It is clear that the current invention as such cannot predict what relationships exist between particular events and animal effectiveness. As described here above for example regarding the administration of a medicament on page 14 (all of which applies to the invention as a whole, and not only to the particular embodiment where they are described), many relationships hitherto unknown or unknown for a certain animal or group of animals may be revealed and advantageously used in line with the invention. All potential relationships mentioned in this description are only meant as potential examples, and are not limiting for the invention in its broadest scope, nor meant as a list out of which a relationship between an event and animal effectiveness must be chosen. It is the gist of the invention that such relationships can be recognised to actually exist and thereafter used to control the management of the animal(s).

In this respect many more potential relationships, and thus, means to control the management may exist. For example, it could be found that despite the use of a certain type of vaccine, acting for example to protect against PRRS virus, suddenly there is PRRS outbreak. By comparing the events with history events, it may that it is found that the operator has changed, or the source of the vaccine, or any other parameter. If not, it might thus be that a novel type of PRRS virus has arisen against which the vaccine does not work. This may lead to the choice of an alternative vaccine for future management, or better hygiene to prevent future infections or other control measures. Other relationships that are envisioned are for example the relationship between weather conditions, transport of animals or other exterior events and spread of disease. Knowing that there is a relationship, a future outbreak of disease may be predicted which means that preventive measures can be taken before clinical disease actually occurs.

Still other relationships, for example between hygiene protocols and animal effectiveness (such as for example resistance against disease), may lead to fine-tuning of these protocols for future management, relocation of animals, management fine-tuned to age of the animals and/or type of space the animals are kept in etc. This comes down to managing (internal) biosecurity which is enabled since the system and method of the invention are able to spot vertical and horizontal transmission of disease. Also, simple but often overlooked relationships between certain tools used in animal management, maybe even of the shelve tools that have been used for decades, may have an influence on animal effectiveness that is hitherto unknown. The overall effect when applying the current invention may have implication outside direct control of animal management. Since the system may be able to forecast future effects on animal effectiveness depending on the events noticed, it may also be possible to forecast the economical value of each animal or the group of animals. This can be used as a tool as such (since the economical value of an animal can be regarded as an animal effectiveness indicator) but it may also be sued for a simple prognosis of the (short term) value of a company managing the animals (for example the cash position). Also, a more optimum choice for a buyer could be made, since it may be that some animals features lead to a better price at a different buyer. The process for an optimal buyer can be started weeks before the animals are actually sold since the system is able to soundly forecast the animal effectiveness at time of slaughter.

The invention can also be used for optimising breeding programs (breeding/crossing etc being events in the sense of the present invention). Having an enormous wealth on data available regarding animal effectiveness throughout various breeds and thus genetic content, a more exact relation between genetic content and animal effectiveness may be provided using the current method and system. Although in the past, most attention was payed to highest output in number of animals per year, it may be that this is not optimal for each market. Different markets may ask for different types of animals (for example more meat, or higher quality meat, better breed in view of animal welfare, lower carbon footprint per animal, lower need of use of medicaments, better resistance against certain diseased or pathogens, etc.). Breeding programs can now be optimised more rapidly, targeting at a higher animal effectiveness.

The above further embodiments all have their equivalents in the system according to the invention.

The invention will now be further explained using the following non-limiting examples.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Figure 1 diagrammatically shows a predetermined relationship between micro-climate and growth over time.

Figure 2 schematically shows a system according to the invention.

EXAMPLES

Several embodiments of the method and system according to figure 2 have been exemplified hereafter in concise examples 1 and 2 respectively. Figure 1

Figure 1 diagrammatically shows a predetermined relationship 1 between micro-climate and growth over time. In a confined space for keeping production animals, such as for example a stable to keep pigs, not only the overall climate is a very important aspect in relation to animal effectiveness, but also the so-called micro-climate. The micro climate (local climate) is the climate (temperature, humidity, air flow etc) at certain positions within a confined space where the animal is kept. For example, when keeping pigs in a stable, the overall climate is important, but the micro climate also (or even alone) has to be taken into account since depending on the exterior circumstances, the local climate may vary substantially throughout a stable. For example, the climate near the walls can be substantially different from the climate in a centre section of the stable.

In figure 1 the vertical axis represents the weight of the animal and the horizontal axis the time. The other dimension, not depicted, in this case is a parameter that relates to the local climate, in this case a combination of temperature and humidity, which relationship has been established in lien with the method of the current invention and has a correlation coefficient of 0.99. After establishment of this relationship, for any future management, this relationship can be used to control operations. The basic curve (going though points 2, 4 and 6) represents the optimal growth of the animal over time, under ideal local climate circumstances. A situation is depicted that at the starting point t = to, the animal has a weight that coincides with point 2 on the curve, and the local climate is ideal. Then, at t = tl the local climate appears to be sub-optimal, leading to the animal no longer lying on the curve (a difference 5 is present with the position 4 on the curve) which could lead to less optimal growth or even weight loss. In order to prevent such sub optimal growth, the local climate is upregulated to be at optimal level such that the animal at time t = t2 again is on the optimum curve for growth. Figure 2

Figure 2 schematically shows a system 10 according to the invention. The system comprises a confined space 11 to keep a pig 12. The system moreover comprises a memory 14 that is coupled to a central processing unit (CPU) 15. The memory 14 may hold predetermined data relating to a relationship between the one or more events and the animal effectiveness, and is able to be filled with new data once such a relationship has been established (viz. curve 1, figure 1). The CPU on its turn is connected to a nourishing means 16, which is able to dose three different amounts of pig feed A, B or C (or mixtures thereof), in precise amounts, in animal feed trunk 17. Trunk 17 is available for pig 12 to feed itself. The trunk is able to establish whether or not the feed doses is eaten by the animal and in what time frame. The corresponding data are send to CPU 15 for processing. At the same time, the system comprises a semi-automated medicament administration device (as known for example from W02013/110624) that provides input to the CPU about what medicament is administered when. The system also comprises a camera 20 that is able not only to identify the pig (as described in WO 2019/068921), but also to monitor the behaviour of the pig, such as assessing its location over time in the space 11, whether it feeds itself from the trunk, etc. but also to establish an effectiveness, in this case the weight of the pig by assessing its shape.

The system this way is able to assessing multiple events that might influence the animal effectiveness of the pigs and at the same time, the system can actually assess this animal effectiveness. This way, if existent, based on the data the CPU can determine a relationship between the one or more events and the animal effectiveness and store a corresponding set of data in memory 14. This relationship on its turn can then be used to control the operator means to control a future treatment of the pig to increase the animal effectiveness. Example 1

In this example the smart medicament administration device as depicted in Figure 2 of W02013/110624 is used in a pig stable divided in multiple pens. Based on an established relationship between medicaments administered and animal effectiveness, the smart device in fact controls the management of medicament administration. At particular moments in time, the pigs in pen X, Y and/or Z get diarrhea, and the device is used to administer medicaments to treat the diarrhoea. By using the CPU to determine a relationship between the administration of the medicament and the animal effectiveness, it is found that there is a relationship between the treatment of the diarrhoea in pen X and the outbreak later on in pen's Y and Z which can be traced to routing of the operator after treatment of pen X to pens Y and Z. Once this is established, for any next round of treatment against diarrhoea using the device, the operator must first undergo a hygiene treatment before going to any other pens. Example 2

Basically, this example corresponds largely to Example 1, albeit that it relates to another relationship between an event and animal effectiveness. This example relates to a case of production animal management where by applying the current invention a relationship is established between movement of an animal, heart beat rate, taking of water and the outbreak of a viral disease. Once having this relationship established, when the circumstances in at a future moment in time appear to be the same, a preventive measure can be taken aimed at preventing the disease even before it clinically shows.

Claims

1. A method for the management of a production animal living in a confined space, the method comprising operator means to impose a treatment of the production animal to support its growth, wherein the living of the production animal and the said treatment together result in one or more events in the confined space, the method further comprising assessing the one or more events, and concomitantly assessing an animal effectiveness of the production animal, determining a relationship between the one or more events and the animal effectiveness, and using the relationship to control the operator means to control a future treatment of the production animal to increase the animal effectiveness.

2. A method according to claim 1, characterised in that the relationship between the one or more events and the animal effectiveness is used to control a future treatment if said one or more events and the animal effectiveness have a correlation coefficient of at least 0.8.

3. A method according to claim 1 or 2, characterised in that the relationship between the one or more events and the animal effectiveness is used to control a future treatment if said one or more events and the animal effectiveness have a correlation coefficient of at least 0.9.

4. A method according to any of the preceding claims, characterised in that animal effectiveness assessed is chosen from the group consisting of average daily weight gain (ADWG); total weight gain; time to slaughter; number of offspring per mother animal; weight of offspring; health of offspring; feed conversion; number of offspring per kg of feed provided to mother animal; resistance to disease; predefined behavior; carbon foot print per kg of meat; meat quality; responsiveness to medicine; milk intake; colostrum intake, and required number of hours of manual labour per animal.

5. A method according to any of the preceding claims, characterised in that in addition to the relationship between the one or more events and the animal effectiveness, a predetermined relationship between the one or more events and the animal effectiveness is used to control the operator means to control a future treatment of the production animal to increase the animal effectiveness.

6. A method according to 5, characterised the predetermined relationship between the one or more events and the animal effectiveness is chosen from any known relationship between feed intake and growth, behaviour and growth, climate and growth, disease and growth, medicament intake and growth, body condition and growth.

7. A method according to an of the preceding claims, characterised in that the one or more events are chosen from the group consisting of 1) the timing of administering a medicament, such as a vaccine, in the sense of the age of the animal, the time of the day, the time after eating; and the timing of the administration in relation to the environmental conditions, in particular temperature and humidity, 2) the site of administration, for example IM, SC, IV, ID, TD in combination with position such as neck, back, leg, 3) the type of immunisation being either passive or active, 4) the type of medicament, such as the origin of the antigen, the type of adjuvant, the amount of constituents, the administration regime.

8. A method according to any of the preceding claims, characterised in that the future treatment is imposed by a human operator.

9. A method according to claim 8, characterised in that in the method, the human operator is instructed to impose a treatment chosen form the group that consists of routing through the confined space; treatment of animals including one or more of administering a medicament, inseminate, relocate or select an animal; personal hygiene handling; space hygiene handling including one or more of cleaning a stable or its surroundings, and closing a stable from its environment; the use of tools.

10. A method according to any of the preceding claims, characterised in that the future treatment is climate control.

11. A method according to any of the preceding claims, characterised in that the future treatment is automatic climate control.

12. A method according to claim 10 or 11, characterised in that the climate is controlled by adjusting one or more properties of the air in the space where the animal lives, chosen from the group consisting of temperature; relative humidity; particles per volume; type of particles in the air; relative content of gases, such as CO2, O2, NH3, ChU, H2S, and/or CO; air flow.

13. A method according to any of the preceding claims, characterised in that the future treatment is the automatic provision of feed.

14. A method according to claim 13, characterised in that the provision of feed is adjusted by adjusting the amount of nutrients in the feed and/or the physical appearance of the feed.

15. A method according to any of the preceding claims, characterised in that the future treatment is the administering of a medicament, in particular the vaccination of the production animal.

16. A method according to any of the preceding claims, characterised in that the animal is part of a group of multiple animals kept in the confined space, and that for each animal in the group the method is applied individually.

17. A method according to claim 16, characterised in that the method is used for obtaining an increase in the animal effectiveness of the group of production animals as a whole.

18. A system for applying any of the methods according to claim 1 to 17, characterised in that the system comprises: - a production animal living in a confined space,

- operator means to impose a treatment of the production animal to support its growth,

- means to automatically assess an event that results from the living of the production animal and/or the said treatment,

- means to automatically assess an animal effectiveness of the production animal,

- determining means to determine whether there is a relationship between the one or more events and the animal effectiveness, and - control means that based on the relationship control the operator means to control a future treatment of the production animal to increase the animal effectiveness.