On-farm monitoring of layer flock health using sensors and modern data analytics

Over the last decades, the egg industry in Europe and North America has experienced significant transformations, shifting from conventional cage housing towards cage-free alternatives, with aviary systems offering hens more space and freedom to express their natural behaviours. Nevertheless, the complexity of aviary systems, with their three-dimensional structure, demands a high management level. Simultaneously, an increase in average flock size has been observed to improve production efficiency. These changes pose significant challenges to daily farm management and monitoring and maintaining flock health and welfare. This chapter describes and reviews the latest technological and analytical advancements applicable to monitoring layer flock health and welfare. We explored the current state-of-art, issues and future perspectives on the use of sensors and advanced data analytics.