ZOVEX: a zootechnical veterinary expert system to advise swine farms on animal health management

Expert Systems (ESs) are problem solving computer packages that use expert knowledge to attain a high level of performance that normally would require years of special education and training (Hays-Roth et al., 1983; Waterman, 1986; Turban, 1990), and are a special type of Management Information Systems (MISs) to provide information to support decision-making (Davis and Olson, 1985). The name ES was derived from the term Aknowledge-based expert system@, however Knowledge-Based System (KBS) is used again. All ESs are KBSs, while the converse is not necessarily true. In the majority ESs are based on knowledge of one expert while KBSs integrate knowledge of different experts, and KBSs do next to expert knowledge also apply knowledge from other sources (Waterman, 1986).