TAIL BITING CAUSES SIGNIFICANT WELFARE ISSUES FOR PIGS AND ECONOMIC LOSSES FOR PORK PRODUCERS. THIS PROJECT WILL UTILIZE AN ADVANCED COMPUTER VISION PLATFORM (NUTRACK SYSTEM) TO UNDERSTAND THE COMPLEX ETIOLOGY OF TAIL BITING AND PROVIDE EARLY RECOGNITION OF TAIL BITING OUTBREAKS IN PIGS. EARLY RECOGNITION OF TAIL BITING WILL ALLOW EARLY INTERVENTIONS THAT PREVENT OR REDUCE TAIL BITING AND IMPROVE HEALTH AND WELLBEING OF PIGS. OUR PROPOSED OBJECTIVES ARE: 1) UTILIZE AN ADVANCED COMPUTER VISION PLATFORM TO IDENTIFY CHANGES IN POSTURES AND ACTIVITIES ASSOCIATED WITH TAIL BITING OUTBREAKS (TBO) TO PREDICT AND PREVENT TBO THROUGH EARLY INTERVENTION; 2) CHARACTERIZE BEHAVIORAL PATTERNS OF TAIL BITERS AND VICTIMIZED PIGS FOR EARLY IDENTIFICATION OF THESE PIGS; 3) EVALUATE SOCIAL POSITIONS OF PIGS INVOLVED WITH TAIL BITING AND THEIR ROLES IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF TBO; 4) ASSESS STRESS AND IMMUNE STATUS OF INDIVIDUAL PIGS THAT MAY PREDISPOSE THEM TO TAIL BITING EVENTS; AND 5) VISUALLY IDENTIFY TAIL BITING EVENTS FROM PROCESSED VIDEO TO DEVELOP AI AND MACHINE LEARNING PROGRAMS THAT WILL BE CAPABLE OF AUTONOMOUSLY IDENTIFYING TAIL BITING EVENTS AND ASSOCIATED PIGS. THREE EXPERIMENTS WILL BE COMPLETED: EXP. 1 AND 2 AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA TO ADDRESS OBJ. 1-5, AND EXP. 3 AT THE UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA-LINCOLN TO ADDRESS OBJ. 1 AND 5. THE PROJECT CONTRIBUTES TO SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE AND FOOD SYSTEMS BY PREVENTING TAIL BITING IN A WAY THAT IS MORE ANIMAL WELFARE FRIENDLY THAN TAIL DOCKING.