Effective health monitoring of livestock is important for the sake of animal welfare as well as farm productivity, bringing better health and reduced use of antibiotics to pig farming. It is especially critical when it comes to preventing respiratory diseases in swine, as these often involve large animal populations and rapid diseases transmission.
That task has become vastly easier across whole pig herds with the help of SoundTalks®, an award-winning early detection system that enables farmers to continuously monitor pig farms for sound without setting foot in them. This is an innovative cloud-based sensor technology capable of monitoring the chatter and noises of pigs on a 24/7 basis.
SoundTalks® reduces the need to spend as much time in the barn listening for respiratory symptoms. This frees up producers and vets to focus their efforts in other areas, resulting in immediate, measurable benefits for animal health and business outcomes.
The system can detect symptoms for respiratory disease five1 days earlier than conventional detection methods. Deploying artificial intelligence, the system processes the sound data collected at the farm and translates it into a number from 0 to 100 that represents the animals’ respiratory health status. The population is then flagged as green (healthy), yellow (elevated risk) or red (immediate action required).
Reducing the use of antibiotics and improving health
One of the studies2 conducted has shown that the use of SoundTalks® lowers the need for veterinary treatment and cuts antibiotic consumption.
Since its environment affects the health of any individual pig, SoundTalks® can also help to keep pigs on farms healthier. That results in higher weights, gains in productivity, lower cost of disease management and positive returns on investment for the producers, up to 7.9, depending on market conditions3.
Farmers can view the data immediately in a smartphone or web app, allowing for early detection of respiratory problems and to better assess their potential spread.
Watch this video interview on how AI can improve customer experience.
Markus Hammer, Head of Swine at Boehringer Ingelheim
“The data is reliable, helping producers make informed decisions as well as understand a pattern based on, for example, a region or age […].”
Overcoming subjective judgement
In September 2022, Boehringer conducted a study titled ‘Variation in subjective judgment on respiratory health by pig personnel in wean-to-harvest sites’, involving 40 livestock caregivers4 (swine farmers and veterinarians) in the United States to demonstrate the impact of SoundTalks® on objective detection of disease symptoms. The participants were provided with three different video recordings of coughing in pigs and asked to identify the severity of the illness.
The results showed that the subjective judgements of experienced farmers and veterinarians were highly variable in assessing the respiratory health of the animals. Responses ranged from “no respiratory disease at all” to “this is a severe illness,” even as participants studied the same video of a pig barn. This wide disparity in judgment makes it impossible for farmers and vets to compare pigs’ health between farms or over time.
“Some of our customers work with hundreds of farms, and many depend on subjective judgement – while objective monitoring allows you to aggregate the data. So, when working with many farms, you can get a big picture easily,” explains Markus Hammer, Head of Swine at Boehringer. “The data is reliable, helping producers make informed decisions as well as understand a pattern based on, for example, a region or age – which in turn can hint at a root cause of the problem.”
“Having a remote device telling you where you should be right now helps you prioritize,” says Martin Pfützner, veterinarian and farm owner.
Continuing improvement and growth
Working closely with producers allows Boehringer to refine SoundTalks® to account for the conditions on specific farms. For example, background noise such as ventilation systems can obscure other sounds, making it harder to detect coughing. By introducing new algorithms, it was possible to filter out the extraneous noise and sharpen the precision of the technology, enabling it to identify coughing with greater accuracy.
Since acquiring a stake in its Belgium-based creator in 2019, Boehringer Ingelheim has successfully launched the product in virtually all of the world’s major pork-producing markets, including Brazil, Belgium, Chile, China, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands, Poland, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Thailand, the United States and Vietnam. The positive response from producers in these countries has clearly shown they appreciate the value of SoundTalks®.
SoundTalks® key features:
a highly innovative health and welfare solution based on artificial intelligence
generates remote, live, objective respiratory health data
easy installation and user-friendly interface
supports farmers with earlier detection of symptoms for respiratory disease for early intervention
resulting improvements in swine health bring productivity gains and improved animal welfare
facilitates benchmarking across farms and over time for continuous improvement of outcomes
Super, that’s correct!
Did you know: It is common to rely on personnel to observe pig health, quantify number affected by symptoms, and relay severity to decision makers. However, accurately assessing the prevalence of respiratory diseases can be difficult.
Did you know: Personnel’s subjective judgments on severity play a significant role in determining actions taken for herd health and pig flow optimization. These judgments are also used to assess the effectiveness of implemented health interventions.
Did you know: A study shows that there is a considerable variation in subjective judgments among pig personnel, which can impact the consistency of decisions and evaluations.
Next recording
Now it's your turn!
Listen to recordings from a pig barn by clicking on the microphone and assign the recordings to the different warning levels of SoundTalks®. Do you recognize coughing pigs as good as the AI?
0/ 3
There is room for improvement!
Pretty good!
Perfect!
Accurately assessing the prevalence of respiratory diseases can be difficult and a variation in subjective judgments can impact the consistency of decisions and evaluations.
A solution, that offers objective, data-driven insights into respiratory health can enable early detection and informed decision-making for optimal herd health management.
Please press on the card with your finger until it can be moved.
Oh no, that’s wrong!
Did you know: It is common to rely on personnel to observe pig health, quantify number affected by symptoms, and relay severity to decision makers. However, accurately assessing the prevalence of respiratory diseases can be difficult.
Did you know: Personnel’s subjective judgments on severity play a significant role in determining actions taken for herd health and pig flow optimization. These judgments are also used to assess the effectiveness of implemented health interventions.
Did you know: A study shows that there is a considerable variation in subjective judgments among pig personnel, which can impact the consistency of decisions and evaluations.
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