Scientific Officer: Paolo Trevisi
Duration: 15/10/2023 - 14/10/2025
Research group: Paolo Trevisi, Diana Luise, Federico Correa, Daniele Bigi, Paolo Zambonelli, Francesco Palumbo.
TAILSCAN addresses the challenges of tail biting among pigs, the unwanted practice of tail docking and the impact on pig welfare. The call requests for an automatic tool to survey prevalence and severity of short tails and tail lesions in pig abattoirs. TAILSCAN builds on the commercially available ADAL platform. The suggested approach includes digital images collected by a camera mounted on a robot arm. The images are processed and analysed locally before re-ported to a cloud based API service available for any users with appropriate access rights. The statistical reports will be available in Farm4trade’s interface towards farmers, or integrated into industrial users’ ICT systems. TAILSCAN will be assessed regarding all stakeholders’ practical experiences and perceptions, and tested in a multicenter industrial field pilot. Abattoirs from Germany (VION), Netherlands (VION), Spain (Incarlopsa) and Italy (Martini Group) are the abattoir industrial partners. Fam4Trade, and Italian SME, will coordinate the TAILSCAN project. The universities of Bologna (Italy), Teramo (Italy) and Leon (Spain) are the academic partners. Important European stakeholders invited to the reference group will provide the project with broader perspectives. Results will be communicated openly in a range of channels and networks.