Project description
Animals welfare monitoring system
Pig breeders have long used preventive medicines, including antibiotics, to reduce the spread of illnesses and to increase productivity. By general available data, at least 70 % of antibiotics are used in animal production and only 30 % to cure humans. As a result, antibiotics are not effective curing humans because they were commonly used before in farms. ThermoEye provides a game-changing innovation. Years of testing have resulted in a temperature monitoring device that detects the onset of fever, allowing farmers to protect their herds in an ecologically friendly way, significantly reducing the use of antibiotics. ThermoEye is based on the use of a net of inexpensive bolometric sensors. Investment in the product is returned within less than 18 months, allowing customers to enjoy antibiotic-free pork. The device is in line with recent EU legislation banning preventive antibiotics use until 2022.
Objective
The global pork market is worth over €100B. The pigs’ breeders use preventive drugs to reduce risk of illnesses spreading and to increase their profits by 10%. Only in Poland farmers use yearly over 580 tons of pure antibiotics, which we later consume in meat or which pollute the environment causing antimicrobial resistance. Research shows that 80% of drugs are applied to animals therefore the probability that a given bacteria is immune to human drugs is very high. Officially more than 46% pig's farms used the preventive medicines (unofficial data shows that the number is twice higher). Additionally there is a lack of qualified veterinarians on the market who could monitor the farms. Until know there were no complex solution which address these challenges.
ThermoEye is game changing innovation. After two years of experiments our engineers have designed a distributed, contactless IoT system for temperature monitoring based on cheap bolometric sensors (currently TRL7 with real tests). ThermoEye detects fever at early stage and helps farmers to protect herds in alternative, ecological friendly way without preventive antibiotics. The farmers' investment in ThermoEye returns in 18 months. The end customers receive antibiotic-free pork, and the vets obtains new tools for herd monitoring. Moreover we provide the statistical analysis for researchers. ThermoEye is a WIN-WIN-WIN solution for stakeholders providing income of €1/pig/month for our company. There are above 760M over the world. Smart Soft Solutions team has started in Poland, but we would like to be a global company. We won several competitions like MIT EF, Young in Lodz, EIT Food and we have seed investors on board who evaluated our product and business model. We presented our solution in Dubai, Bucharest, Hannover and other fairs to create book of orders. First sales was done last month.
Recently EU Parliament banned preventive antibiotics usage since 2022 and it will strongly supports our company mission.
Fields of science
- natural sciencescomputer and information sciencesinternetinternet of things
- engineering and technologyelectrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineeringelectronic engineeringsensorsoptical sensors
- medical and health sciencesbasic medicinepharmacology and pharmacypharmaceutical drugsantibiotics
- agricultural sciencesanimal and dairy sciencedomestic animalsanimal husbandry
- medical and health sciencesbasic medicinepharmacology and pharmacydrug resistanceantibiotic resistance
Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
SME-1 - SME instrument phase 1Coordinator
97-340 ROZPRZA
Poland
The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.