In the ongoing battle against avian influenza, Livetec Systems has created a platform to give poultry producers valuable new digital weapons. By Michael Barker
A new digital platform is promising to help the poultry sector predict, prevent and respond to disease threats with greater confidence and control.
Livestock Protect, from Livetec Systems, was unveiled to the industry in a special webinar last month, where experts from the company outlined the rationale for developing the platform and how it can benefit producers. The presentation was led by group technical director Julian Sparrey, with support from product owner Dean Button, group MD Gordon Samet, head of marketing Jen Griffett, and director of digital transformation Grant Oliff.
The new platform was developed against the backdrop of avian influenza, which continues to cause huge stress and disruption throughout the egg and poultry supply chains in the UK. Livetec said the ongoing battle against the disease created the need for a “360-degree approach to biosecurity”.
Introducing the technology, Sparrey said the platform delivers the ‘Four Ps of livestock protection’, namely Preparedness, Prevention, Planning and Prediction, and brings together all of Livetec’s various advisory services into one integrated tool. Its features include AI outbreak mapping – including wild birds – biosecurity assessments, visitor logging, a chatbot, depopulation calculator and emergency response tools, among other elements.
Livestock Protect is already being adopted by large-scale integrators and producers and is accessible across iOS, Android, and web platforms. Initially focused on the poultry sector, Livetec is also working to extend its capabilities across other livestock sectors including pigs.
The new platform is available via a subscription model with three packages aimed at different business needs. In addition to a free version that provides access to essential features, there are Premium and Enterprise packages that offer added functionality, including access to eBAS, the biosecurity assessment system that delivers weighted risk scores and tailored recommendations for each farm, and AccessProtect, which enables simple visitor logging for full traceability.
For Enterprise users, the platform includes practical emergency response tools, such as a depopulation calculator, live operations dashboard and access to national outbreak plans.
“These features can also be purchased as bolt-ons to the free and Premium packages, giving producers the flexibility to build a package that best suits their business needs and risk profile,” Sparrey said.
Introducing Paula
One of the most notable features of the new platform is Paula, a biosecurity chatbot powered by Google Gemini, which can answer questions and provide instant access to expert advice.
Paula is an acronym for Protecting Agriculture through Unified Learning and Assistance, and combines public data with Livetec’s own knowledge to give risk assessments based on historical and contextual information, as well as answer questions and offer specific advice for situations that producers may face.
“At Livetec we’ve written lots of biosecurity plans, contingency plans, thought processes on how we’ve responded to AI, and what we’ve seen on the ground when we’ve been dopopulating, and we wanted to distil this into Paula so people can get contextual information about questions on the farm,” Sparrey explained. “For example, [producers] have done their eBAS and want to know what it means, or want to know how big a mesh they should be covering their vents with. You can ask it specific questions and it will draw up those answers. It’s based on the phone calls and the messages we get – Paula can give you that basic information without having to engage with a human being all the time. This is a more efficient way of doing it.”
Livetec insists it is not trying to completely replace face-to-face interaction and will still come out to the farm in complex situations, but stresses the new platform offers a low-cost solution to many everyday problems.
Emergency preparedness
Another key area is the platform’s ability to help producers create an emergency response plan, with the system’s contingency planning suite helping producers through the process of discussing their particular situation with an APHA vet as soon as possible. “When you have a disease investigation, there are a large series of questions that have to be asked, and this system will have the answers to those questions at your fingertips,” Sparrey said.
He highlighted an example of a farmer in Scotland who got AI, and thanks to the system had a vet in and out in 45 minutes with all the paperwork completed. “We try to answer the questions that APHA are going to ask, but we’ve also added questions which they don’t ask but which are very practical about specific things about your farm.”
Part of speeding up that process involves producers being able to map their farm, illustrate the general biosecure area, highlight live bird areas, grain stores and so on, so the maps can immediately be handed over to APHA, either electronically or on paper.
A further useful feature allows users to highlight which of their neighbours keep birds – information that is not always publicly available when it comes to backyard producers. “You can hand that information over to APHA straight away to assist them in locating those poultry keepers in your 3km zone,” he added.
A digital visitors’ log called AccessProtect also helps keep track of contractors’ and suppliers’ contact details so they can quickly be traced in the event of an outbreak. That is all done simply by scanning a QR code on the gate at the site entrance, though there is also the capability to log into individual sheds or feed silos. “APHA has spent hundreds of thousands of hours trawling through illegible visitor books in their disease investigation, epidemiology, tracing forwards and back, and this [tool] was actually driven by one of our clients – one of the major producers in the UK – who said we really need something better to log in people to our sites,” Sparrey explained. “All the logged information comes back into the single Livestock Protect platform so we are able to drill down on who has been to that site, and it is also digitally transferable to APHA. It all relates back to the emergency response plan.”
Livetec hopes that its new technology means the days of relying on paper records are numbered, and that the creation of real-time, centralised tools will better equip the industry in the face of the growing avian flu threat. When time and accurate information is of the essence, the platform hopes to be on the front line of the industry’s fightback against the disease.
“We are trying to drive behavioural change within the industry,” Sparrey concluded. “It’s looking at biosecurity in a different way, changing the way you behave towards it and making sure it’s a 365 day a year operation.”
Livestock Protect: key features
- AI outbreak mapping – providing real-time zone notifications, wild bird surveillance, and historical outbreak data
- eBAS biosecurity assessment system – delivering weighted risk scores and tailored recommendations
- AccessProtect – QR code-based visitor logging for full traceability
- Biosecurity chatbot ‘Paula’ – powered by Google Gemini, offering instant biosecurity advice with a knowledge base curated by Livetec experts
- Depopulation calculator and live operations dashboard – supporting emergency response planning
- National outbreak plans and emergency response tools – ensuring users are prepared to act quickly and effectively