Precision Livestock Farming: New Techniques for Monitoring the Behaviour and Welfare of Farm Animal

Dear Colleagues,

Welfare is an inherent quality of animals that is difficult to understand. If animals are well, they will be in good health, and will express natural behaviors and their full genetic potential in production. Over the years, industrial production systems have guaranteed adequate food and thermal environment, safety and health for animals; however, they have neglected important conditions for well-being, such as space to express natural behaviors.

Monitoring animal behavior is an arduous task for humans. By monitoring behavior, we have important information about the welfare of animals. The increased capacity and processing speed of modern computers has made it possible to analyze large volumes of varied and disorganized data, develop complex multivariable models, and implement autonomous monitoring systems that record and analyze signals from sensors installed on the farm. All this expanded capacity to study animals in the production environment has made it possible to expand our knowledge about the behavior and well-being of production animals.

I invite you to submit original research articles, reviews and case studies on new animal monitoring systems and new data analysis techniques that contribute to increasing our knowledge about farm animals and enable a more accurate assessment of welfare.

Prof. Dr. Danilo Florentino Pereira
Guest Editor

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 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

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
• automation
• big data
• environmental control
• image analysis
• instrumentation
• Internet of Things (IoT)
• machine learning
• remote monitoring
• smart housing