Madonna Benjamin
Associate Professor Michigan State University
- East Lansing MI
Madonna Benjamin develops systems for humane and sustainable care of livestock to benefit farmers and animals.
Media
Biography
Dr. Benjamin focuses on Precision Livestock Farming, which combines economic decisions, mitigation strategies, labor efficiencies, and individual animal welfare through 1) visual imaging to evaluate body condition and weight in cull sows; 2) establishing rural connectivity to improve farm economics and animal welfare; 3) development of on-farm robust data collection devices. She develops systems for humane and sustainable care of livestock to benefit farmers and animals.
She is collaborating with producers and stakeholders to understand interest and opportunities for artificial intelligence technologies for indications and predictors of animal health and welfare.
Industry Expertise
Areas of Expertise
Accomplishments
Innovation of the Year
2022-04-18
Michigan State University
Education
University of Guelph
DVM
1995
Michigan State University
M.S.
1998
News
Benjamin achieves board certification in animal welfare
National Hog Farmer online
2022-06-21
Michigan State University Associate Professor and Swine Extension Veterinarian Madonna Benjamin recently achieved board certification in the American College of Animal Welfare. Benjamin was one of the first recipients of the ACAW Scholarship Program funded by the American Association of Swine Veterinarians Foundation.
Research Grants
IDEAS TRIPARTITE: AUTOMATED PIGLET AND SOW MONITORING FOR EARLY DETECTION OF AT-RISK PIGLETS
National Institute of Food and Agriculture
2024-09-01
Non-technical summary - Sows give birth to 15-20 piglets per litter, which is more piglets than she has functional teats. This is critical to both animal welfare and farm economic viability because when piglets outnumber teats, up to 1 in 4 piglets are at risk of dying before weaning.
Journal Articles
Perceptions of swine industry stakeholders on the use of water-based foam, high-expansion nitrogen foam, and carbon dioxide gas as methods of swine depopulation
Preventive Veterinary MedicineJanice Y. Park, Magnus R. Campler, Ting-Yu Cheng, Justin D. Kieffer, Andréia G. Arruda, Madonna E. Benjamin, Dale W. Rozeboom, Andrew S. Bowman
2024-12-10
Emergency contingency plans for the U.S. swine industry, including depopulation protocols, that are essential to limit the spread of sudden outbreaks of infectious diseases is currently lacking. Although novel depopulation methods such as water-based foam (WBF) and high-expansion nitrogen foam (N2F) are being investigated, carbon dioxide gas (CO2) is currently the only American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA)-preferred method capable of depopulation of groups of swine.
Precision livestock farming: a qualitative exploration of swine industry stakeholders
Frontiers in Animal ScienceBabatope E. Akinyemi, Belinda Vigors, Simon P. Turner, Faical Akaichi, Madonna Benjamin, Dale W. Rozeboom, Juan P. Steibel, David P. Thompson, Cassey Zangaro, Janice M. Siegford
2023-05-04
Precision livestock farming (PLF) technology development has proliferated recently, but on-farm adoption has lagged. Understanding PLF stakeholders’ views, practical applications, limitations, and concerns are necessary to understand the factors influencing the adoption of PLF technology.
The quest to develop automated systems for monitoring animal behavior
Applied Animal Behaviour ScienceJanice M. Siegford, Juan P. Steibel, Junjie Han, Madonna Benjamin, Tami Brown-Brandl, Joao R.R. Dórea, Daniel Morris, Tomas Norton, Eric Psota, Guilherme J.M. Rosa
2023-08-04
Automated behavior analysis (ABA) strategies are being researched at a rapid rate to detect an array of behaviors across a range of species. There is growing optimism that soon ethologists will not have to manually decode hours (and hours) of animal behavior videos, but that instead computers will process them for us.
