Penn Vet launches AI-powered livestock behavior lab

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The School of Veterinary Medicine launched a new laboratory that uses artificial intelligence to study the behavior of livestock animals.

The Data, Analytics, and Technology for AI in Livestock Animal Behavior opened at Penn Vet’s New Bolton Center on May 20. The lab is led by Daniel Foy — co-founder and CEO of agri-tech firm AgriGates — and Swine Production Medicine professor Thomas Parsons.

In a statement to The Daily Pennsylvanian, Parsons wrote that “DAT-AI-LAB is a central home for the large-scale data” that the team collects to train their behavioral models.

“It’s right there in our name (DAT-AI-LAB): the Data we need, the Analysis we have to run for accuracy, and the Technology, the compute and hardware, that powers AI for livestock animal behavior,” Parsons added.

Using data collected and analyzed with the assistance of AI and machine-learning technology, DAT-AI-LAB can “make better and more timely decisions about important areas like animal health and welfare,” according to a May 28 press release.

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Initially, the lab’s findings will support farmers caring for swine and dairy animals, but may expand to other species.

“Animal behavior remains one of the most underappreciated and underutilized metrics for detecting the clinical signs of a problem and for diagnosis,” Foy wrote to the DP. “Our lab is about building the tools, the proverbial hard hats and the picks, that can be handed to the industry to help mine for new insights, efficiencies, and value, whether the person holding them is a farm hand or a veterinary practitioner.”

In the release, Parsons expressed his belief that the DAT-AI-LAB’s opening presents a “tremendous opportunity with this new technology to really allow us to become much more efficient” for the “extremely labor-intensive…

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