As a consequence of the projected world population growth, world meat consumption is expected to grow. Therefore, meat production needs to be improved, although it cannot be done at any cost. Maintaining the health and welfare status of animals at optimal levels has traditionally been a main concern of farmers and, more recently, consumers. In this article, the Poultry Chain Management (PCM) platform is presented. It aims at collecting data across the different phases of the poultry production chain. The collection of these data not only contributes to determining the quality of each phase and the poultry production chain as a whole, but more importantly, to identifying critical issues causing process inefficiencies and to support decision-making towards the holistic improvement of the production chain. Results show that the information gathered can be exploited to make different suggestions to guarantee poultry welfare and, ultimately, improve the quality of the meat.
Keywords: IoT; agriculture; poultry welfare.