Opportunities for Regulatory Authorities to Assess Animal-Based Measures at the Slaughterhouse Using Sensor Technology and Artificial Intelligence: A Review

SIMPLE SUMMARY: Various measurements can be obtained on an animal. These measurements can provide valuable information on animal welfare. Sensors and smart algorithms can automatically perform those measurements and aid in achieving more automated meat inspection and welfare assessment at the slaughterhouse. This study provides an overview of animal welfare measurements at the slaughterhouse and gives examples of the available technologies to record and use these measurements. There are several technologies available, either applied in research, on farm or at the slaughterhouse. However, according to current European Union (EU) law the meat inspection must be performed by a veterinarian. Therefore, sensor technology cannot yet replace a human during the meat inspection, but it has potential to play an important role in the future. Currently it can already add value to the inspections and provide better insight into animal welfare issues than by human inspections alone. ABSTRACT: Animal-based measures (ABMs) are the preferred way to assess animal welfare. However, manual scoring of ABMs is very time-consuming during the meat inspection. Automatic scoring by using sensor technology and artificial intelligence (AI) may bring a solution. Based on review papers an overview was made of ABMs recorded at the slaughterhouse for poultry, pigs and cattle and applications of sensor technology to measure the identified ABMs. Also, relevant legislation and work instructions of the Dutch Regulatory Authority (RA) were scanned on applied ABMs. Applications of sensor technology in a research setting, on farm or at the slaughterhouse were reported for 10 of the 37 ABMs identified for poultry, 4 of 32 for cattle and 13 of 41 for pigs. Several applications are related to aspects of meat inspection. However, by European law meat inspection must be performed by an official veterinarian, although there are exceptions for the post mortem inspection of poultry. The examples in this study show that there are opportunities for using sensor technology by the RA to support the inspection and to give more insight into animal welfare risks. The lack of external validation for multiple commercially available systems is a point of attention.