Biotechnology in Animals' Management, Health and Welfare 2019

Dear Colleagues,

Synergy between the fields of engineering, medicine, and biology has led to the rapid development of extremely sophisticated and complex monitoring systems, with highly efficient algorithms for signals analysis. These new technological tools are becoming strongly useful in different fields of human clinical practice, with evident advantages in terms of comfort (non-invasiveness), efficiency, and ease of use. The main aim is to improve the monitoring of physiological and behavioral parameters in order to accurately assess the emotional and health state of subjects.

Moreover, in this age of strong global competition, sustainable production carried out by farms needs to be strongly improved, both in terms of efficiency and animal welfare. In this context, real-time monitoring of physical, physiological, and mental health of animals using both “ready to use” technologies and ad-hoc dedicated systems, directly applicable to every day practice by farmers and technicians, is the most demanding and promising challenge to deal with.

Recent studies highlighted how the Autonomic Nervous System parameters and the behavioral changes (i.e., manifestation of acute and chronic pain or evaluation of fear-induced states) can provide concrete information about the emotional and physical well-being of animals, with the consequent impact on livestock production.

It is worth noting that real-time monitoring of subjects through non- or minimally invasive systems is extremely useful in other application areas, such as in laboratory animals, where the determination of the end-point of a trial is fundamental to the well-being of animals. Similarly, another application of these systems can be found in assisted activities and therapy with animals, where behavioral and physiological monitoring systems can help to estimate the efficacy of the intervention itself. In these situations, humans and animals play the actor roles in the interaction process and their emotional response is an essential information to be measured.

Innovative papers from different research areas, such as biotechnologies, bioengineering, computer science, animal science, and veterinary medicine, are invited to contribute to this Special Issue that aims to bring together the latest advances of biotechnologies for the management, health, and welfare of animals. Interdisciplinary studies will be taken into account, especially ones regarding (but not limited to):

1) Long- and short-term body monitoring at individual and/or group level of animals involved in breeding production, laboratory, and Assisted Intervention;

2) Data analysis of farm activity and laboratory systems;

3) Animal welfare and health as indicator of sustainable production;

4) Innovative personalized systems for ecological monitoring;

5) Dedicated models and data processing algorithms;

6) Novel sensor and system design.

Dr. Paolo Baragli
Dr. Antonio Lanatà
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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