The idea behind the Pig Cough Monitor, the first commercial product by SoundTalks, a new KU Leuven-University of Milan spin-off, is simple: microphones hung in a pigsty monitor bovine coughing patterns and alert the farmer if coughing becomes abnormal. The technology makes it possible to detect and treat respiratory problems quickly and efficiently, resulting in decreased antibiotic use and healthier pigs
Pigs demonstrating the cough monitor
The minds behind SoundTalks are civil engineers Dries Berckmans and Wilm Decré, both of whom obtained doctorates at KU Leuven's Production Engineering, Machine Design and Automation (PMA) Section, where they hatched the idea to launch a spin-off specialising in smart monitoring systems based on sound. Initially, their focus remained within their own research field – mechanical applications – in which sound is used to monitor machines and vehicles. Via the M3-BIORES research group, which has been developing techniques to monitor the health of animals using sound since 1998, Berckmans and Decré developed a concrete idea that helped to launch their spin-off: a cough monitor for pigs.
Nervous bovines
Wilm Decré: “We first had to make a database of all the noises pigs make. Pigs are very social animals. If you walk through a pigsty, you hear an extremely nervous cacophony of sounds: snorting, coughing, grunting, etc. On the basis of the database, we made an algorithm that distinguishes coughing from all the other sounds. Once we had the software, we were able to test the Pig Cough Monitor. We hung microphones in compartments of approximately one hundred pigs each in test sties in Belgium and Italy.”
Dries Berckmans (pictured, right): “The research version of our monitor enables us to indicate where in the sty the pigs are coughing. Moreover, our monitor distinguishes between productive, wet coughs and non-productive, dry coughs. To minimise costs, the current commercial version operates more simply: the monitor indicates the frequency of the coughs and whether there is more coughing than normal in particular compartments. If it detects a problem, it sounds the alarm and sends an text message to the farmer. He or she can then see what is really going on, and make an informed decision based on objective health information: call in a vet, change the feed or the vaccination strategy, etc. We have an agreement with the Dutch Fancom BV, which will distribute our Pig Cough Monitor worldwide.”
Less antibiotics
Is it economically smart to develop a product for the pig market? After all, times are hard for Belgian pig farming, with many farmers chosing to quit the business. Berckmans: “Though that is true, it is mostly small farms that are closing. There is a clear trend toward scale increase, and moreover, it is predicted that the global demand for meat will increase by forty per cent over the next fifteen years.”
“The Belgian – and by extension Western European – farmer must be high-tech to survive, and our cough monitor may play a role in this. Pigs are so overbred that they have less resistance to disease, and due to our changeable climate – in contrast to producers in, for example, Brazil – a change of a few degrees causes disease in the pigsty. For example, in one of our test-sties, the alarm was sounded in two places: when we checked, it appeared that the windows at those places let draughts through. The Pig Cough Monitor does not provide all the health information about the pigs, but it does convey important new information.”
And according to Decré, that information is extremely valuable: “If a farmer had time to be with his pigs constantly, our system would be worthless. But a large-scale pig farmer only has time to visit his sties twice a day at most. With the Pig Cough Monitor, you know more about your animals without having to keep an eye on them personally.
Furthermore, the vet can monitor health information over a longer period of time rather than just momentary indications during his visit to the sty. Respiratory disease results in enormous economic cost. Sick animals grow less efficiently, their meat-fat ratio changes and vet bills and antibiotics cost money. A farmer who only has a small margin per pig will thus see his profit dwindle to nothing if his pigs get sick. Moreover, the often excessive use of antibiotics in livestock breeding cannot last. The cough monitor makes it possible to detect and treat respiratory problems quickly and efficiently. As a result, the use of antibiotics will decrease in the future.”
Now that the monitor for pigs has been released on the market, Wilm Decré and Dries Berckmans are working on the next SoundTalks product: a Cow Cough Monitor. “The hardware for cows is almost identical, but the algorithm is completely different than for pigs. Racehorses and poultry are still on our to-do list.” And humans? “In principle, it is not impossible, in hospitals for example, but for the time being our focus is on the livestock market. For human beings you would need a portable monitor per person, and you have to consider all kinds of privacy legislation, etc. No, cows were a logical next step.”
