The Kansas Department of Commerce International Division, in collaboration with the Consulate General of the Czech Republic in Chicago, hosted an online roundtable on animal health on February 4, 2025, focusing on best practices in biosecurity and food safety. The main goal of the roundtable was to strengthen existing and new relationships between Kansas and the Czech Republic – to open doors for cooperation, create partnerships, and discuss investment and business opportunities.
During the event, experts from the Czech Republic and Kansas discussed key issues such as animal welfare, animal diseases, food processing and production, and sustainability. The University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice, through its representative from the Department of Technology and Cybernetics, Faculty of Agriculture and Technology, presented its research in the field of automatic welfare monitoring in large-scale animal farms, where it uses machine vision algorithms. Attention was paid in particular to the system for assessing the welfare of dairy cows on a dairy farm using machine vision methods, the system for detecting broilers and estimating their weight based on image data, or the system for diagnosing diseases of dairy cows' teats and hooves using thermographic images. The BAT centre of the University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice was also presented, where new BAT technologies are verified in air protection, wastewater, processing of livestock excrement up to incorporation into the soil, feed production, energy, training of workers, etc.
In addition to the University of South Bohemia, the round table was attended by representatives of the Ministry of Agriculture of the Czech Republic, the State Veterinary Administration of the Czech Republic, the Czech University of Life Sciences, Cymedica, the Genomia laboratory, Addicoo, the Kansas Department of Agriculture, the National Bio- and Agro-Defense Facility, MS Biotech/Axiota, Elanco Animal Health, Hill's Pet Nutrition, Plug and Play, BioNexus KC and Kansas State University.