– by C. Morgan-Davies (SRUC)
The 75th annual meeting of the European Federation of Animal Science took place in Florence in Italy this year, from 1-5 September. It has been another great occasion for some of the TechCare partners to meet in person and showcase the project’s results. Our results were presented in 5 different sessions during the 4 days conference. On the Monday, Claire Morgan-Davies (SRUC) had a presentation in Session 42: Digital technologies for management titled ‘TechCare: Technologies to manage the welfare of sheep and goats – from pilots to large-scale studies’. Tuesday was a full day. Fiona Kenyon (MRI) and colleagues had a poster for the morning Session 56: PLF for health, behaviour and welfare Part 1, titled ‘TechCare: Monitoring semi-intensive meat sheep welfare through EID and weight’. The afternoon Session 65: PLF for health, behaviour and welfare Part 2 was a busy one, with 3 presentations relating to the project: Eliel Gonzalez-Garcia (INRAe) presentation was titled ‘Full-flock-full-pregnancy monitoring of liveweight progression in Romane meat ewes, using a walk-over-weighing system in rangelands’. Next, Germain Tesnière (IDELE) presented results from some of the pilots: ‘Tracking sheep indoors or on pasture using Bluetooth and UHF RFID for welfare management: feedback from trials conducted in Scotland and France’, followed by Gerardo Caja (UAB), who had a presentation on ‘Milking order of healthy and subclinically mammary infected dairy ewes in mid lactation’. At the same time, Michelle Reeves (SRUC) had an invited presentation ‘Welfare challenges in small ruminants’ in Session 68 Small ruminant health and welfare aspects. Finally, on the Wednesday, Gerardo Caja had another presentation in Session 96 Optimization of technical, economic, and environmental efficiency in sheep and goat production systems, titled: ‘Implementing an autodrafter-weighing scale for assessing the body weight changes and grouping dairy sheep and goats during lactation’. These were excellent opportunities to present our work and network with colleagues internationally, as well as spending quality time with the TechCare colleagues present at the conference. A very nice event!
© EAAP
Some of the TechCare team members in Florence (L-R: Tim Keady (Teagasc), Germain Tesnière (IDELE), Fiona Kenyon (MRI), Jean-Marc Gautier (IDELE), Michelle Reeves (SRUC), Claire Morgan-Davies (SRUC – coordinator), Brid McClearn (Teagasc), Irene Llach-Martinez (INRAE), Gerardo Caja (UAB), Riccardo Carelli (EAAP), Eliel Gonzalez-Garcia (INRAE).
