A REVIEW OF LIVESTOCK MONITORING AND THE NEED FOR INTEGRATED SYSTEMS

Developments in sensor technology which have taken place, and which ar e in progress or can be foreseen, will make available increasing amoun ts of information relevant to monitoring animals and their environment , and hence their production, growth and health. Systems are already a vailable for identifying and weighing animals and it is reasonable to expect that systems will become available for tracking animals; for mo nitoring basic physiological factors such as body temperature and hear t rate; and for assessing body conformation, and some limited aspects of composition. The application of integrated monitoring system techni ques, in which information from sensors, databases, mathematical model s and knowledge bases are combined and interpreted, will enable the ma ximum potential of this information to be realised. Several systems co ntaining some of the elements of an integrated monitoring system are a lready available commercially for pig, broiler and milk production. (C ) 1997 Elsevier Science B.V.