USPOULTRY and the USPOULTRY Foundation announce the completion of a funded research project by researchers from the University of Georgia that worked to develop a web-based artificial intelligence system to analyze broiler activity index. The research is part of the Association’s comprehensive research program encompassing all phases of poultry and egg production and processing. A summary of the completed project is below.

Project #F113: Development of a Web-Based Artificial Intelligence System for Analyzing Broiler Activity Index

(Dr. Guoming Li, Department of Poultry Science, University of Georgia, Athens, Ga.)

Broiler activities, such as locomotion and movement, can be quantified as activity index. The activity index has been associated with leg health, productivity and physical conditions of broilers. However, the indicator requires engineering knowledge to adjust image processing parameters, segment individual broilers, select calculation areas and normalize variations to obtain consistent values. This project developed a user-friendly platform to calculate the broiler activity index, either individually or in groups, from videos. The open-source user-friendly platform allows researchers to interact with software tools to understand animal behavior patterns and welfare without needing extensive programming knowledge.

The research summary can be found on the USPOULTRY website. Information on other Association research may also be obtained by visiting the USPOULTRY website, uspoultry.org.