Poultry
Broiler health and performance data are often spread across production systems, laboratory records and national monitoring schemes, making it difficult to detect patterns early and translate data into practical decisions. The poultry group developed data-driven tools and models to support broiler farmers, veterinarians and advisors in monitoring flock performance, endemic disease risks and welfare indicators at the farm level. Key outputs include the Poultry Barometer, an interactive dashboard that visualises infectious bronchitis virus strains by region and time period, supporting more informed monitoring and vaccination strategies. The group also developed a Virus Circulation tool (OptiVacc) for monitoring endemic diseases in broiler production and a Footpad Lesion Early Prediction Model to identify flocks at risk of high footpad lesion scores before slaughter. These tools and models will benefit broiler farmers and poultry veterinarians by supporting earlier detection of health and welfare risks, better use of available data and more targeted farm-level interventions.
Tools and models
Poultry Barometer
An interactive dashboard developed as a Dutch pilot to monitor infectious bronchitis (IB) virus strains in broiler production. It improves the reporting of IB monitoring results by moving from twice-yearly national PDF reports to an accessible dashboard with more up-to-date information by quarter and province. This helps farmers and veterinarians understand which IB strains are circulating regionally and supports more informed vaccination strategies.
Objective: To support broiler farmers and veterinarians in monitoring infectious bronchitis virus strains and optimising vaccination strategies.
Key features
- Visualises IB strain prevalence by quarter and province.
- Uses summarised diagnostic data to avoid privacy issues.
- Provides more detailed regional information.
- Can be expanded to other laboratories and countries.
Target users: Broiler farmers, poultry veterinarians and laboratories.
Access and resources
- Public tool: https://decide-project-eu.github.io/case-studies-website/case-studies/poultry-barometer.html
- Repository (tool data): https://github.com/decide-project-eu/PoultryBarometer
- Example data: https://github.com/decide-project-eu/PoultryBarometer/blob/main/example_data.csv
- Tutorials: https://decide-project-eu.github.io/case-studies-website/tutorials/cattle-barometer.html
- Practice abstract: D6.4_First-set-of-practice-abstracts, abstract 5, p16
Playlist
1 Videos
Virus Circulation tool (OptiVacc)
The virus circulation tool is an early-stage tool, developed with Polish stakeholders, that shows the potential of a tool for monitoring endemic diseases in broiler production. The tool focuses on infectious bronchitis virus, avian metapneumovirus and infectious bursal disease virus.
Objective: To support broiler farmers and veterinarians in managing common endemic diseases.
Key features:
- On-farm estimation of field virus circulation based on serology, virology and vaccination data.
- A virus circulation map, to identify the recently circulating strains in proximity of a farm.
- Evidence-based information about the diseases with the list of commercially available vaccines.
Target users: Broiler farmers and poultry veterinarians.
Access and resources
- The mock-up version of the dashboard: https://www.figma.com/proto/Q8jKQEvhXNMfVo56vxfveO/
- Data shared by stakeholders: https://zenodo.org/records/17406208
- Data analysis (publication): https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s12917-026-05341-x
Footpad Lesion Early Prediction Model
This model was developed within DECIDE to predict whether broiler flocks are likely to receive high footpad lesion scores at slaughter. It uses information on previous flocks in the same house, weather data from the first week of the production cycle and flock and farm characteristics. In the study described, the model used data from 19,988 flocks across 592 broiler houses and 190 farms in the Netherlands.
Objective: To provide early warning of high footpad lesion scores so that farmers can still intervene during production, for example, by renewing litter or adapting ventilation.
Target users: Broiler farmers and poultry veterinarians.
Access and resources
- Practice abstract: D6.9_Second-set-of-practice-abstracts Practice abstract 14, page 20.