Monitoring the gut microbiome via AI and omics: a new approach to detect infection and AMR and to support novel therapeutics in broiler precision farms

Diseases caused by pathogenic bacteria, viruses and parasites are among the most significant threats to poultry industry productivity, causing considerable economic losses every year. The use of antibiotics as therapeutics is often pursued without a clear understanding of the actual cause of the diseases, leading to a worrying growth of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in pathogens, with potentially harmful ramifications for public health. The project aims at developing new surveillance solutions for the broiler industry, to detect infection, diagnose infection type (bacterial strain, virus, parasite or combination), suggest treatment, and detect presence of AMR. These solutions will be comprised of protocols for collecting data on the farm and sending it to the cloud where surveillance software will automatically perform periodic assessment, returning information back to the farmers through dedicated apps running on smartphones/tablets.