Final Report Summary - OTAG (Operational Management and Geodecisional Prototype to Track and Trace AGricultural Production)
The OTAG project is dedicated to intensive beef production. It has worked on the design of a system that monitors cattle through their environment, via electronic collars in order to manage the spread of diseases and to Regional pasture use. The OTAG project has two main objectives. Firstly, a geodecisional system is made operational under the controlled conditions to track and trace the mobility, provenance, and state of beef cattle using emerging geospatial and geocommunication technologies. Secondly, OTAG looks to improve innovative mechanisms and methods for recording reliable and accurate data on the origin and primary production of beef as well as the environmental conditions of the territory where the cattle are based.
Aiming to meet the requirements of the European Community beef traceability systems, the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Supply (MAPA) established the Brazilian System of Identification and Certification of Cattle and Buffaloes (SISBOV). According to SISBOV, it is required for the producer to ensure animal identification and to keep a record of the livestock management. For animal identification, the following devices are allowed: ear tag and brand of fire, ear tag and tattoos, ear tag and button, ear tag and electronic devices - always used in pairs. It is however, reasonable that traceability using electronic devices, readers, and labels, is understood as the safest way for effective tracking and tracing.
The computational architecture proposed for the OTAG prototype is organised in four layers. Layer 1 relates to the data collection from electronic devices in the paddock. The animals have a necklace with a GPS device and the paddock has sensors for automatic collection of weight, vaccination register, and temperature measurement of each animal. The information produced by the electronic devices are sent to a computer located in the farm headquarters. For this task, the open standard XML is used, making it possible for any manufacturers to use the electronic devices. In fact, to define and to improve a standard that can be used by any manufacturer is one of the challenges for the OTAG project.
Layer 2 is responsible for storing data, which is sent by the electronic devices and associated with farm management data. The user interface of this layer will allow the farmer to manage data and to extract reports about his cattle production via the Internet. The data of each farm will be sent to layer 3 by using web-service technology.
On layer 3 the information of all the farms of the OTAG system are joined in the same database. Thus, the information concerning to animal movement inside a farm and between farms can be analysed by the use of techniques for dealing with geo-referenced information. The last layer is responsible for treating the data from the OTAG database and from external databases (ground, pastures, climate), and joins them in a specific database to allow geo-decisional analyses.
In OTAG, one of the demands is to identify the contact between animals, inside of a time period and plot out an area for animal movements. In a case of a foot-and mouth disease (FMD) outbreak, for example, the identification of these contacts can help to determine which animals could have some interaction with which contaminated animals. From the current localisation of the contaminated animals, it is possible to manage the action of the sanitary authorities better, as well as isolating better producing regions, to minimise the scattering of the illness.
FMD is still a challenge for Brazil, because economic and sanitary barriers prevent the access of Brazilian meat to new markets. In 1992, the eradication programme with regionalised strategies in accordance with the livestock production systems and agribusiness actors was implemented causing the elimination of outbreaks after 2001. However, in September 2005, a FMD outbreak occurred in the States of Mato Grosso do Sul and Paraná, and then, due to emergent risks, the states of São Paulo, Goiás, Mato Grosso, Federal District, Tocantins, Minas Gerais, Rio de Janeiro, Espírito Santo, Bahia, and Sergipe lost the status of 'FMD free zone with vaccination'. They were therefore forbidden to export meat to other countries. The loss related to the return of the FMD disease in Mato Grosso do Sul, could have reached USD 1,5 billion, due to commercial restrictions to the main exporters. Since then, Brazilian's authorities have been taking sanitary measures to re-establish the status of 'FMD free zone with vaccination'. Thus, one of the relevant issues to assure the 'free zone with vaccination status' is to maintain appropriate sanitary conditions, together with permanent monitoring procedures.
Three Embrapa centres that collaborated in the OTAG project are formulating an internal project proposal, inviting private sector partners to advance the prototype technologies to commercial uptake levels. The ambition is to develop 'public-private' partnerships in order to disseminate technological innovations. So, OTAG Collar technology developed in France is planned to be exported to Brazil and Argentina.
In the R&D field, Procisur together with INTA-Argentine is designing appropriate documentation and detailed descriptions of systems and technologies (+ the various physical prototypes) in order to introduce these into several research laboratories that have expressed interest in experimenting with the system for other research purposes. This information will also be shared, through the assistance of Procisur, with the agricultural national research institutes in Chile, Uruguay, Paraguay and Bolivia. Partnership with Canadian, French, Brazilian and Argentinean researchers was an additional beneficial effect of the OTAG International partnership.
Aiming to meet the requirements of the European Community beef traceability systems, the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Supply (MAPA) established the Brazilian System of Identification and Certification of Cattle and Buffaloes (SISBOV). According to SISBOV, it is required for the producer to ensure animal identification and to keep a record of the livestock management. For animal identification, the following devices are allowed: ear tag and brand of fire, ear tag and tattoos, ear tag and button, ear tag and electronic devices - always used in pairs. It is however, reasonable that traceability using electronic devices, readers, and labels, is understood as the safest way for effective tracking and tracing.
The computational architecture proposed for the OTAG prototype is organised in four layers. Layer 1 relates to the data collection from electronic devices in the paddock. The animals have a necklace with a GPS device and the paddock has sensors for automatic collection of weight, vaccination register, and temperature measurement of each animal. The information produced by the electronic devices are sent to a computer located in the farm headquarters. For this task, the open standard XML is used, making it possible for any manufacturers to use the electronic devices. In fact, to define and to improve a standard that can be used by any manufacturer is one of the challenges for the OTAG project.
Layer 2 is responsible for storing data, which is sent by the electronic devices and associated with farm management data. The user interface of this layer will allow the farmer to manage data and to extract reports about his cattle production via the Internet. The data of each farm will be sent to layer 3 by using web-service technology.
On layer 3 the information of all the farms of the OTAG system are joined in the same database. Thus, the information concerning to animal movement inside a farm and between farms can be analysed by the use of techniques for dealing with geo-referenced information. The last layer is responsible for treating the data from the OTAG database and from external databases (ground, pastures, climate), and joins them in a specific database to allow geo-decisional analyses.
In OTAG, one of the demands is to identify the contact between animals, inside of a time period and plot out an area for animal movements. In a case of a foot-and mouth disease (FMD) outbreak, for example, the identification of these contacts can help to determine which animals could have some interaction with which contaminated animals. From the current localisation of the contaminated animals, it is possible to manage the action of the sanitary authorities better, as well as isolating better producing regions, to minimise the scattering of the illness.
FMD is still a challenge for Brazil, because economic and sanitary barriers prevent the access of Brazilian meat to new markets. In 1992, the eradication programme with regionalised strategies in accordance with the livestock production systems and agribusiness actors was implemented causing the elimination of outbreaks after 2001. However, in September 2005, a FMD outbreak occurred in the States of Mato Grosso do Sul and Paraná, and then, due to emergent risks, the states of São Paulo, Goiás, Mato Grosso, Federal District, Tocantins, Minas Gerais, Rio de Janeiro, Espírito Santo, Bahia, and Sergipe lost the status of 'FMD free zone with vaccination'. They were therefore forbidden to export meat to other countries. The loss related to the return of the FMD disease in Mato Grosso do Sul, could have reached USD 1,5 billion, due to commercial restrictions to the main exporters. Since then, Brazilian's authorities have been taking sanitary measures to re-establish the status of 'FMD free zone with vaccination'. Thus, one of the relevant issues to assure the 'free zone with vaccination status' is to maintain appropriate sanitary conditions, together with permanent monitoring procedures.
Three Embrapa centres that collaborated in the OTAG project are formulating an internal project proposal, inviting private sector partners to advance the prototype technologies to commercial uptake levels. The ambition is to develop 'public-private' partnerships in order to disseminate technological innovations. So, OTAG Collar technology developed in France is planned to be exported to Brazil and Argentina.
In the R&D field, Procisur together with INTA-Argentine is designing appropriate documentation and detailed descriptions of systems and technologies (+ the various physical prototypes) in order to introduce these into several research laboratories that have expressed interest in experimenting with the system for other research purposes. This information will also be shared, through the assistance of Procisur, with the agricultural national research institutes in Chile, Uruguay, Paraguay and Bolivia. Partnership with Canadian, French, Brazilian and Argentinean researchers was an additional beneficial effect of the OTAG International partnership.
