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On September 9th, Boehringer Ingelheim organized the Symposium “SoundTalks® Innovation Exchange”. The event occurred in Bologna where the 11th European Conference on Precision Livestock Farming (ECPLF), a must-attend meeting point for professionals interested in precision farming, was taking place.
The SoundTalks® Innovation Exchange symposium brought together different stakeholders to share practical applications of digitalisation on farms, especially in the area of respiratory health monitoring.
Dr. Carmen Alonso, Team Lead of Digital Products within the Integrated Health Management (IHM) of Boehringer Ingelheim, welcomed the attendees in her opening talk and presented the new concept of “SoundTalks® powered by FARMERA™” where Boehringer Ingelheim goes one step further in respiratory health monitoring, allowing the integration of new data as well as the monitoring, not only of specific farms, but also of different farm flows and even regions at a system level. The integrated analysis of this massive amount of data is providing new insights of trends, patterns and correlations between various parameters as well as their productive and economic relevance, which opens up new avenues for improvement.
Dr. Alberto García Flores, from Inga Food (Spain) provided practical data on system level health monitoring and its application in nursery farms that his company is implementing in Spain. SoundTalks®’ capacity to monitor respiratory health efficiently was validated in their own system where it was compared with monitoring of water and feed consumption, as well as the clinical observations of an outstanding farmer. In addition, in order to confirm the effectiveness of SoundTalks® for early diagnosis in their system, they were able to observe a reduction in treatments with antimicrobials and an improvement in the homogeneity of the animals. As SoundTalks® powered by FARMERA™ integrates information from the different farms of a given pig flow, the objective is to monitor the epidemiology of these flows in order to evaluate respiratory health of the flow and production improvement by implementing a systematic approach.
Eugenio Sanchez Tarifa - Key Account Mamager, Boehringer Ingelheim- presented the interim results of the regional PRRS control project done in the southest part of Spain, with the aid of system-level precision health monitoring, within the RisPorDat project.
The RisPorDat project aimed at improving the health status of pig farms through better understanding the correlations between the stability of the piglets against PRRS and its effects across different stages within the flow and across flows Therefore they were able to act sooner in the face of an outbreak minimising the negative effects of these diseases and hence improve farm productivity, contributing to more sustainable production in the long term.
After the presentations, the attendees participated in a dynamic round table to exchange information about the main advantages and challenges in the use of this new technology and farm digitalisation in general. Different areas were highlighted as critical, such as the proper mental set up of the company to take full advantage of the digitalisation outcomes, the need to involve the staff and provide them with feedback on the process and how PLF can help.
SoundTalks® powered by FARMERA™: Data, IoT and Artificial Intelligence
These three concepts when combined allow for great advances in areas such as respiratory health monitoring. The digitalisation of respiratory clinical signs allows for an in-depth analysis of trends and patterns of the respiratory health in farms, pig flows and even regions in a systematic way.Through the “SoundTalks® powered by FARMERA” visualisation, users are able to integrate the most important production variables ( i.e. inventory, age of animals, cause of mortality, treatments, etc..), as well as information on environmental parameters such as temperature and relative humidity, which are providing extremely relevant information regarding respiratory health.
Quantify, visualize and integrate
What is not measured cannot be improved. It is important to keep in mind that data and information are not the same thing. That is why it is so important to measure, to visualize the data in a simple, understandable, and systematic way, to integrate the information from different sources, eliminating duplications and, in order to be able to draw effective conclusions, to carry out a correct economic quantification of each factor and action taken.
Respiratory Health Status (ReHS) score provides a continuous, objective and quantifiable assessment tool that has been shown to correlate with mortality, growth, and antimicrobial consumption.
Carly Fiorina said, “The goal is to turn data into information and information into insight.”. This is what “SoundTalks® powered by FARMERATM” users are nowadays achieving.
September 13, 2024 - Boehringer Ingelheim
