Smart Platform Aims to Protect Russia’s Agriculture Sector From Biological Threats
Agropromtsifra and Smart Tekhnologii Invest have launched the BioPuls (BioPulse) digital platform to manage biological risks and veterinary safety in livestock and poultry production.
The long-term viability of Russian livestock and poultry businesses critically depends on effective systems for analyzing and predicting biological risks at production facilities. Epizootics – disease outbreaks among animals – are one of the biggest threats farmers face. In industrial livestock and poultry operations, an outbreak can wipe out an entire farm population and cause devastating financial losses. Even when a disease is quickly contained, livestock deaths, quarantine, treatment and vaccination costs, along with lower productivity among surviving animals, can still prove extremely expensive.
According to estimates from the HealthforAnimals association, farmers worldwide lose about 20% of livestock production each year because of disease and poor animal care. Total losses are estimated at roughly $300 billion annually. Identifying vulnerabilities in a farm’s biosecurity system and detecting early warning signs – such as changes in animal behavior or abnormal laboratory results – is far less costly than fighting a disease once it has already spread.
Biological Risk Analysis
IT technologies can help farms analyze conditions and predict risks, as well as calculate the resources needed to strengthen safety measures and veterinary monitoring. BioPuls, a project designed to manage biosecurity in livestock and poultry production using artificial intelligence, was jointly launched by Agropromtsifra, a Russian integrator of digital technologies for the agricultural sector, and Smart Tekhnologii Invest, a developer of agricultural software and hardware.
The digital system predicts biological risks and manages veterinary safety and the reliability of production processes. The platform collects data from production facility systems, veterinary measures, established procedures for personnel and vehicle movements, sanitation practices, laboratory testing, diagnostics, as well as previous incidents and the causes of animal disease. This allows farms to see the relationships among production and veterinary factors and potential sources of risk.
Preventing Emergencies
BioPuls uses specially trained neural networks and big-data analytics to identify relationships between events and detect risk factors. Farmers receive information about potential problems and can decide what preventive action to take. In effect, the platform shifts biosecurity management from documenting an emergency after it happens to anticipating risks before they become incidents.
“BioPuls is proactive biosecurity – a system that helps protect people and animals before a risk becomes an incident. Together with Agropromtsifra, we are creating a practical digital tool for agricultural enterprises,” said Nikita Yuzefovich, head of digitalization projects at Smart Tekhnologii Invest.
BioPuls will initially be deployed at facilities operated by Tavros Group, which manages nine pig farming complexes, a breeding and genetics center, and an artificial insemination station.
“For livestock and poultry production, biosecurity is first and foremost about protecting people and animals. Tavros Group’s participation in the project will allow the company to become the first to adopt a predictive approach to biological risk management and strengthen prevention of particularly dangerous animal diseases at its production sites. What matters to us is that preventive measures are planned before a critical situation develops and that management decisions are based on complete, up-to-date information,” said Artem Samoylov, director of IT and digital transformation at Tavros Management Company.
Assessing Financial Transaction Risks
BioPuls has strong potential beyond disease prevention and has already attracted interest from Russia’s financial sector. The platform could also serve as an analytical tool in negotiations among agricultural businesses, banks, insurance companies, veterinary drug manufacturers and research organizations. The digital technology can support more accurate risk assessments for lending and insurance, giving parties to a transaction a common, data-based foundation for decision-making. Integrating BioPuls into Russian smart-farm platforms that combine feeding, veterinary care, logistics and financial management systems could also help farmers manage livestock operations more effectively as a whole.
Over time, similar smart agricultural complexes built around Industry 4.0 principles could also find demand in friendly countries with rapidly growing populations and a need to increase meat production.
