AI Tools for Sustainable and Efficient Animal Production Systems

Dear Colleagues,

Animal production systems play a crucial role in ensuring global food security, supplying high-quality animal-derived protein, and supporting agricultural sustainability. However, modern livestock and poultry production is facing increasing challenges, including rising production costs, disease risks, animal welfare concerns, labor shortages, resource constraints, and environmental pressure. Therefore, the development and application of artificial intelligence tools are becoming increasingly important for improving the sustainability, efficiency, and resilience of animal production systems.

Sustainable and efficient animal production strategies are based on two fundamental aspects: (a) the accurate, continuous, and non-invasive perception of animals, environments, and production processes; and (b) intelligent decision-making and management for improving animal health, welfare, productivity, resource-use efficiency, and environmental sustainability. For this reason, this Special Issue will focus on the use of AI tools for sustainable and efficient animal production systems. The scope of this Special Issue covers the development, integration, and application of artificial intelligence technologies across livestock and poultry production systems, including animal monitoring, health assessment, behavior analysis, environmental control, production prediction, intelligent management, and decision support. Our aim is to showcase the recent advances, practical applications, and future perspectives of AI-enabled technologies for sustainable and efficient animal production.

This Special Issue will present significant and relevant research with an integrated approach to animal health, animal welfare, production efficiency, environmental sustainability, and intelligent agricultural management. Contributions presenting novel AI algorithms, sensing technologies, multimodal data fusion methods, decision-support systems, and real-world applications in animal production are particularly welcome.

Topics of interest for this Special Issue include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Computer vision, acoustic sensing, and wearable technologies for livestock and poultry monitoring.
• Multimodal data fusion for animal behavior, health, and welfare assessment.
• AI-based detection, diagnosis, and early warning of animal diseases.
• Intelligent monitoring of feeding, drinking, growth, reproduction, and production performance.
• Precision feeding and resource-use efficiency optimization.
• Environmental monitoring and intelligent control in animal housing systems.
• Digital twins, simulation models, and predictive analytics for animal production.
• The use of robotics and automation technologies in livestock and poultry farming.
• Animal production management relying on large language models, knowledge graphs, and decision-support systems.
• AI applications for reducing emissions, improving biosecurity, and promoting sustainable farming.
• Model interpretability, data standards, edge deployment, and practical farm applications of AI tools.

Dr. Yanrong Zhuang
Dr. Yu Liu
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Animals is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• artificial intelligence
• precision livestock farming
• animal health monitoring
• animal welfare
• multimodal sensing
• deep learning
• computer vision
• audio monitoring
• disease early warning
• intelligent environmental control