Partners Sought

To form a compliant transnational consortium (minimum 3 countries), we seek partners with expertise in:

???? Poultry welfare science
???? Ruminant health and welfare
???? Pig production systems
???? Veterinary epidemiology
???? Entomology / vector ecology
???? Precision livestock farming
???? Biostatistics & modelling
???? Socio-economic integration (optional supporting action)

Eligible partners include:

Universities

Veterinary faculties

Public research institutes

Applied agricultural research centres

Consortium Vision

This project aims to establish a scalable, scientifically validated IoT-enabled pest monitoring framework applicable across major livestock production systems in Europe.

The goal is to move pest management from a reactive chemical paradigm to a preventive, welfare-integrated and evidence-based approach.

Animal Welfare
Primary SRIA Action: OO4-2 – Development and validation of on-farm welfare assessment technologies

Working Title

PREVENT-VALIDATE – Multispecies Scientific Validation of IoT-Based Pest Surveillance Systems for Animal Welfare and Biosecurity Enhancement

Project Rationale

Pest pressure (rodents, flies and other vectors) represents a cross-sectoral challenge in livestock production systems, including:

Poultry farms

Dairy and beef cattle operations

Small ruminant production

Pig farms

Other intensive and semi-intensive animal production environments

Across these systems, pest activity is associated with:

Increased stress and behavioural disturbances

Higher infectious disease risk

Biosecurity breaches

Elevated pesticide use

Although IoT-based pest monitoring systems are increasingly deployed in practice, there is limited scientific validation demonstrating their measurable impact on animal welfare indicators across different livestock species.

This project aims to generate robust scientific evidence under EUPAHW Topic 1 (Animal Welfare).

Project Objective

To validate, under multicountry field conditions, how IoT-based pest surveillance and decision-support systems contribute to:

Early detection of welfare risk factors

Reduction of stress-related behavioural indicators

Improved environmental stability

Safer and optimized pesticide use

Strengthened biosecurity performance

The project will not develop new hardware, but scientifically validate existing digital monitoring technologies.

Scientific Scope

The project will:

Conduct controlled comparative studies (conventional vs IoT-supported pest management)

Include multiple livestock systems (e.g., poultry, cattle, pigs)

Measure animal-based welfare indicators (ABMs)

Assess environmental parameters relevant to welfare

Model pest pressure–welfare interaction

Develop validated intervention thresholds

Species selection will be harmonised to ensure scientific robustness while allowing cross-species scalability.

Expected Outputs

Validated multispecies pest-welfare assessment model

Evidence-based intervention thresholds

Welfare-linked digital biosecurity indicators

Peer-reviewed scientific publications

Policy-relevant recommendations aligned with EU animal welfare strategy

TRL Level

Starting TRL: 4–5
(Existing validated technology requiring structured scientific field validation)