Special Issue "Decision Models in Livestock Production Systems"

A special issue of Animals (ISSN 2076-2615).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 September 2021.

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Lluís Miquel Plà-Aragonés
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Mathematics, University of Lleida, Lleida, Spain
Interests: pig supply chain management; operations research in agriculture; decision models; stochastic programming
Dr. Esteve Nadal Roig
E-Mail
Guest Editor
Department of Business Administration, University of Lleida, Lleida, Spain
Interests: livestock systems, decision support systems in agriculture; optimization models; operation research

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Livestock production has been evolving rapidly in recent years. The next decade will be critical in food security and sustainable production. The increase of meat demand, regulations, and concerns about consumer safety, animal welfare, and sustainability provoke an increase of the complexity in livestock management. In addition, the Internet of Things (IoT), Agriculture 4.0, and precision livestock farming (PLF) refer to new information technologies capable of collecting, storing, and processing data into information which has never before been available to decision makers. This context requires new or adapted decision models fitted to a wide variety of livestock production systems capable of competing among production systems and satisfying market demand in an environmentally sustainable way. Operational research (OR) and decision support systems (DSS) may illustrate approaches integrating different decision models seeking to help a variety of stakeholders’ profiles of livestock production systems in their decision-making process.

Then, the aim of this Special Issue is to publish original research papers concerning decision models in livestock production systems to create an impact in livestock farming regardless of the type of production and the methodology proposed.

Dr. Lluís Miquel Plà-Aragonés
Dr. Esteve Nadal Roig
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 papers will be 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 monthly 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 1800 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.

Keywords

  • Decision models in livestock farming
  • Optimization approaches to livestock production systems
  • Livestock decision support tools
  • Multi-objective optimization in livestock production systems
  • Optimization of livestock supply chain management
  • Sustainable decisions in livestock farming
  • Decisions assisted by precision livestock farming devices
  • Adapting livestock decision models to Agriculture 4.0
  • Decisions on digitalization (or not) of livestock systems
  • Big data and data analytics for bettering decisions in livestock systems

Published Papers (1 paper)

Order results
Result details
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

Article
Using PRRSV-Resilient Sows Improve Performance in Endemic Infected Farms with Recurrent Outbreaks
Animals 2021, 11(3), 740; https://doi.org/10.3390/ani11030740 - 08 Mar 2021
Viewed by 426
Abstract
The selection of porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS) resilient sows has been proposed as a strategy to control this disease. A discrete event-based simulation model was developed to mimic the outcome of farms with resilient or susceptible sows suffering recurrent PRRSV outbreaks. [...] Read more.
The selection of porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS) resilient sows has been proposed as a strategy to control this disease. A discrete event-based simulation model was developed to mimic the outcome of farms with resilient or susceptible sows suffering recurrent PRRSV outbreaks. Records of both phenotypes were registered in a PRRSV-positive farm of 1500 sows during three years. The information was split in the whole period of observation to include a PRRSV outbreak that lasted 24 weeks (endemic/epidemic or En/Ep) or only the endemic phase (En). Twenty simulations were modeled for each farm: Resilient/En, Resilient/En_Ep, Susceptible/En, and Susceptible/En_Ep during twelve years and analyzed for the productive performance and economic outcome, using reference values. The reproductive parameters were generally better for resilient than for susceptible sows in the PRRSV En/Ep scenario, and the contrary was observed in the endemic case. The piglet production cost was always lower for resilient than for susceptible sows but showed only significant differences in the PRRSV En/Ep scenario. Finally, the annual gross margin by sow is significantly better for resilient than for susceptible sows for the PRRSV endemic (12%) and endemic/epidemic scenarios (17%). Thus, the selection of PRRSV resilient sows is a profitable approach for producers to improve disease control. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Decision Models in Livestock Production Systems)
Show Figures

Figure 1

Back to TopTop