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Test of a UHF-RFID system for health monitoring of finishing pigs

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Anita Kapun at University of Hohenheim
Anita Kapun
Felix Adrion at Agroscope
Felix Adrion
Laura Alena Schmid
Laura Alena Schmid
Laura Alena Schmid
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Abstract and Figures

Due to increasing herd sizes, the demand for automatic health and activity monitoring systems for individual animals is getting stronger. The aim of this study is to fulfill this task by using a validated ultra-high frequency radio frequency identification system (UHF-RFID) to monitor the visiting events (time, frequency, duration) of finishing pigs at so-called hotspots in a pen. This contribution presents initial analyses as a step toward this goal. Two groups of finishing pigs (33 in total) were tagged with UHF-RFID transponder ear tags and were kept in two pens of an outdoor climate stable equipped with UHF readers at the trough, the drinker, the playing material and the door to a yard area. Over a period of nearly 12 weeks, the visiting events of each pig at these locations were monitored via a monitoring software. Additionally, their health status (lameness, tail lesions, skin lesions, diarrhea, coughing and shortness of breath) was observed twice a week. The average daily duration of visits at the trough across all 33 pigs was 145 min. The pig with the shortest duration was, on average, 101.3 min per day at the trough, the one with the longest duration 203.7 min. Though there was no difference in the average feeding duration of healthy pigs and pigs classified as sick in general, a finer classification showed that pigs that were declared as lame (123.9 min) or coughing (113.3 min) had shorter daily visiting time at the trough. When looking at the single RFID events, all pigs showed circadian rhythms of activity on every hotspot. Lame pigs displayed a longer night-time break on days with lameness than on healthy days. Also, the influence of the fattening day on the duration at the trough was regarded. The results promise a possibility to detect lameness based on monitored changes of behavior patterns. Further analyses are planned, e.g. on other hotspots and pigs with observed diarrhea with the objective of forecasting diseases.
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CIGR-AgEng conference Jun. 26–29, 2016, Aarhus, Denmark
∙ 1 ∙
Test of a UHF-RFID system for health monitoring of finishing pigs
Anita Kapun a,*, Felix Adrion a, Laura Alena Schmid a, Max Staiger a, Eva-Maria Holland a, Eva Gallmann a,
Thomas Jungbluth a
a Institute of Agricultural Engineering, University of Hohenheim, 70599 Stuttgart, Germany
* Corresponding author. Email: anita.kapun@uni-hohenheim.de
Abstract
Due to increasing herd sizes, the demand for automatic health and activity monitoring systems for individual animals
is getting stronger. The aim of this study is to fulfill this task by using a validated ultra-high frequency radio frequency
identification system (UHF-RFID) to monitor the visiting events (time, frequency, duration) of finishing pigs at so-called
hotspots in a pen. This contribution presents initial analyses as a step toward this goal.
Two groups of finishing pigs (33 in total) were tagged with UHF-RFID transponder ear tags and were kept in two
pens of an outdoor climate stable equipped with UHF readers at the trough, the drinker, the playing material and the door
to a yard area. Over a period of nearly 12 weeks, the visiting events of each pig at these locations were monitored via a
monitoring software. Additionally, their health status (lameness, tail lesions, skin lesions, diarrhea, coughing and
shortness of breath) was observed twice a week.
The average daily duration of visits at the trough across all 33 pigs was 145 min. The pig with the shortest duration
was, on average, 101.3 min per day at the trough, the one with the longest duration 203.7 min. Though there was no
difference in the average feeding duration of healthy pigs and pigs classified as sick in general, a finer classification
showed that pigs that were declared as lame (123.9 min) or coughing (113.3 min) had shorter daily visiting time at the
trough. When looking at the single RFID events, all pigs showed circadian rhythms of activity on every hotspot. Lame
pigs displayed a longer night-time break on days with lameness than on healthy days. Also, the influence of the fattening
day on the duration at the trough was regarded.
The results promise a possibility to detect lameness based on monitored changes of behavior patterns. Further
analyses are planned, e.g. on other hotspots and pigs with observed diarrhea with the objective of forecasting diseases.
Keywords: health, behavior, monitoring, fattening pigs, ultra-high frequency, radio frequency identification
1. Introduction
Due to increasing herd size per production unit health monitoring is becoming a growing challenge in modern pig
husbandry. Hence, systems for automatic animal health and activity monitoring would be of great help to the farmer.
Observing anomalous behavior could be a promising method for the detection of health impacts. Pigs’ visits at different
hotspots in the pen (e.g. at the trough) can be registered by using RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) for electronic
animal identification (Adrion et al., 2015; Maselyne et al., 2014a; Maselyne et al., 2015). Analyzing a pig’s duration and
frequency of visits at a hotspot may lead to conclusions on the animal’s health. The use of UHF technology (ultra-high
frequency) instead of LF (low frequency) enables a simultaneous identification without separation and a larger reading
range (Adrion et al., 2015; Barge et al., 2013). The aim of this study was to develop an automatic health and activity
monitoring system based on UHF-RFID and the visiting events at the trough, the drinker, the door to the yard area and
the playing material. This contribution shows initial analyses in order to examine the suitability of different indicator
variables and covariates with influence on the pigs’ behavior for the modelling that serves as basis for a monitoring
system.
2. Materials and Methods
The study was carried out in Germany in an outdoor climate stable with insulated lying boxes and a yard area (“Pig-
Port 3”) for pigs. Two mixed-gender groups of finishing pigs (33 in total) were tagged with UHF-RFID transponder ear
tags and kept in two similarly structured pens (Figure 1). The pigs (German Landrace, DanBred, Saddlebag pigs)
weighed on average 55 kg at the beginning of the tests and were fattened to a final weight of about 120 kg. Each pen was
divided into different functional areas, namely into the resting area with solid surface and minimal litter, the fully slatted
feeding and drinking area with a wet feeder and three nipple drinkers and the fully slatted yard area where the pigs
usually defecate. A metal chain with a piece of wood and a plastic tube was located in the yard area and used as playing
material. The hotspots feeding area (trough), drinking area (drinker), door to the yard area (door) and playing area (toy)
in both pens were equipped with UHF antennas (high gain patch antennas at the trough, drinker and the toy, cable
antennas in plastic tubes at the door). The readers used in this UHF-RFID system were functional models (deister
electronic GmbH, agrident GmbH, Barsinghausen, Germany) with a multiplexer for 4 antennas, a maximum output
power of 29 dBm and an operation frequency of 865.7 MHz. The UHF ear tags were developed within the research
project especially for the use with pigs. The transponders were equipped with an Impinj Monza 4® chip and had a PIF
CIGR-AgEng conference Jun. 26–29, 2016, Aarhus, Denmark
∙ 2 ∙
antenna design (Planar Inverted F-Shaped Antenna; Adrion et al.; 2015). They were sized approx. 30 x 40 mm and
grouted into a flexible plastic ear tag (Primaflex®, Caisley International GmbH, Bocholt, Germany).
Figure 1. Floor plan of the two test pens for the study.
Preliminary tests were carried out to figure out the most suitable antenna power for each hotspot to detect an animal’s
visit correctly. For each hotspot four different settings of the antenna power (23-28 dBm) were tested by validating the
RFID events with video recordings of 8 focal pigs. It should be clarified, that the video analysis was based on the pigs’
location in the reading range and not on any interaction with the hotspots such as feeding at the trough. The aggregation
of RFID events – i.e. by which criteria single readings are summed up to events – was optimized for each hotspot and
each tested antenna power. These visiting events were compared to the video recordings (at least two hours of high
activity for each hotspot and each tested antenna power) with statistical measures such as true positive rate (sensitivity)
and true negative rate (specificity). For example, a positive event (video event) was classified as true, if the pig in
question was registered at the hotspot some time during this event (RFID event). Based on these results, the antenna
powers and RFID event aggregation parameters for each hotspot were selected as follows for the main study (Table 1).
Sensitivity was very good at the trough and the toy, however, at the drinker and the door potential for further
optimization of the antenna field was revealed.
Table 1. Antenna power and RFID event aggregation for every hotspot in the main study.
Hotspot
Antenna
power
[dBm]
RFID event aggregation
Statistical measures*
Maximum gap between
two single readings
[s]
Minimum
duration of event
Sensitivity
[%]
Specificity
[%]
Precision
[%]
Accuracy
[%]
Trough
24
50
1
92.0
97.5
97.2
94.8
Drinker
24
60
1
79.0
92.0
90.1
85.7
Toy
24
30
1
100.0
97.8
97.4
98.8
Door
26
30
0
48.5
93.0
86.9
71.1
*Sensitivity = true positive rate, Specificity = true negative rate, Precision = positive predictive value
The main study ran for about 12 weeks. During this period the UHF-RFID system consisting of UHF ear tags, UHF
antennas, readers and a monitoring software (Phenobyte GmbH, Ludwigsburg, Germany) that recorded and aggregated
occurring RFID events ran constantly (except on one day due to a broken USB interface). Also temperature and humidity
inside and outside the building were permanently logged by dataloggers (testo 175H, Testo AG Lenzkirch, Germany).
Furthermore, the health status of the pigs was observed twice a week in addition to the usual daily control by the farm
CIGR-AgEng conference Jun. 26–29, 2016, Aarhus, Denmark
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manager. The rating of the health status included lameness, tail lesions, skin lesions, diarrhea, coughing and shortness of
breath – each divided into 2 to 4 grades of severity. Apart from this, the management in the test pens was the same as in
the other pens on this farm, so that the test was carried out under conditions of good agricultural practice.
Only complete trial days were used for the analysis. That means, each day a pig could be monitored completely by the
UHF-RFID system, beginning with the day after the trial started until the day before the pig was removed from the stable
for slaughter, was considered for the calculations, apart from days with incomplete data because of technical reasons. The
following analyses were performed to assess the possibility of an early detection of diseases on the basis of RFID events
by combining these events with the health conditions. Basis of these analyses were the aggregated RFID events at every
hotspot and the resulting daily mean values of the duration and frequency of visits. Based on the ratings of health status,
the pigs were classified into two groups. Pigs that showed any lameness or diarrhea or a higher grade of coughing or skin
lesions were classified as sick. Other pigs were declared as healthy.
3. Results and Discussion
The daily mean values of the duration and frequency of visits at the different hotspots are summarized in Table 2. On
average, the frequency at the trough was 35.0 visits per day with an average duration of 145.0 minutes. The average
visiting events at the drinker were 26.6 times per day with a duration of 24.7 minutes. The toy was the least frequented
hotspot with on average 9.9 visits per day (8.2 min d-1). The door was the hotspot with the shortest average duration
(5.7 min d-1), but was visited relatively often (23.3 visits d-1). The minima and maxima are obtained from every single
daily mean value of every pig. However, regarding the minima and maxima of daily mean values grouped by pigs, a
strong inter-animal variability is reflected. For example, the pig with the shortest average daily duration at the trough was
101.3 min per day at this hotspot, the one with the longest daily duration was there on average 203.7 min. The variability
between the pigs was particularly large at the drinker with an average daily visiting time between 8.0 min and 56.0 min.
Maselyne et al. (2014b) also found variations within and between finishing pigs for the daily duration of different
behaviors. The average daily durations of feeding (99.4 min) and drinking (15.8 min) were shorter than in this study here,
but were only observed during the day between 7 AM and 9 PM.
Table 2. Daily mean values (MV) of duration and frequency of visits (n = 2365, pigs×complete trial day).
Hotspot
Parameter
MV
Min.
Max.
Trough
Duration [min d-1]
145.0
22.0
344.8
Frequency [1 d-1]
35.0
7
103
Drinker
Duration [min d-1]
24.7
0.2
174.7
Frequency [1 d-1]
26.6
1
82
Toy
Duration [min d-1]
8.2
0
173.0
Frequency [1 d-1]
9.9
0
62
Door*
Duration [min d-1]
5.7
0.01
133.3
Frequency [1 d-1]
23.3
1
106
*n = 2205 due to technical defect
In the present study, the pigs were classified into two groups based on the observed health status: sick and healthy.
Figure 2 shows the average daily visiting time at the trough based on different health conditions (only health observation
days were considered for this figure). The daily mean value of pigs classified as sick was 145.2 min, 141.5 min of pigs
classified as healthy. As the figure implies, there is a clear difference between the average daily duration at the trough of
pigs that were lame (123.9 min) or coughing (113.3 min) and healthy pigs. For example, pig 43 had the most lameness
days with 4 out of 24 health observation days. The average duration and number of visits of this pig at the trough per day
were both higher on days were no lameness was detected (104 compared to 87 min and 32 compared to 23 visits). The
fact that the drinking or feeding behavior of pigs can be affected by lameness or other diseases is supported by the
findings in other studies (Madec et al., 1986; Junge, 2015; Weary et al., 2009). Pigs with diarrhea and skin lesions had an
average daily feeding time of 147.8 min respectively 145.6 min. Consequently, they hardly showed any difference to the
mean value of healthy pigs (141.5 min). Though the results seem to suggest that lame and coughing pigs eat less, they are
not necessarily indicative due to the small quantity of occurrences of diseases. Nevertheless, the results are very
promising. They allow the assumption, that lameness and cough could be detected by an RFID system based on the
visiting events at the trough. Further studies with an UHF-RFID monitoring system are needed to confirm this
assumption.
CIGR-AgEng conference Jun. 26–29, 2016, Aarhus, Denmark
∙ 4 ∙
Figure 2. Average daily visiting time at the trough based on different health conditions.
When looking at the single visiting events instead of the mean values per day, the data indicates circadian rhythms for
the visits of every hotspot, which is also supported by other studies. For example, Ingram and Dauncey (1985) found that
the peak of food intake was significantly greater in the light than in the dark and water intake was correlated very
strongly with that. Overall, the activity of pigs in the present study is greater during the day and there is often a night-
time break of several hours where there is no visiting event at any hotspot. Despite that, a night time break that is longer
than usual could be an indicator for diseases, because sick animals may tend to be sleepy or inactive and less motivated to
move (Hart, 1988). For example, in 6 out of 10 times where lameness was detected in the present study, the night time
break at the trough was found to be more than 8 h long on the day of health observation or ±1 day. This was the case on
only 14 % of the days where no lameness was observed at these pigs. This circumstance should be further investigated by
studies with a larger number of animals and with minimized potential sources of error by eliminating time gaps in health
observation.
With regard to possible interrelations between health condition and frequency or duration of visits at a hotspot, other
influencing variables must not be forgotten, such as atmospheric humidity and temperature or the age and thus the weight
of the pigs. As an example, figure 3 shows the decreasing trend over time of the duration of visits at the trough of every
pig (daily mean values) in relation to the time of fattening. In contrast to that, Brown-Brandl et al. (2013) observed
increasing time at the feeders until day 95-105 of age with a maximum of only 76.7 min d-1. In general, a possible
influence on the results by aspects of the social behavior and interaction (social facilitation) must not be forgotten, but
could not be investigated in this study yet. For example, if a pig fed ad libitum sees another pig eating, it will be
motivated to eat again (Deen, 2010).
CIGR-AgEng conference Jun. 26–29, 2016, Aarhus, Denmark
∙ 5 ∙
Figure 3. Daily mean value of duration of visits at the trough of every pig and trend over fattening time.
4. Conclusions
The present study shows much potential in finding sick finishing pigs based on UHF-RFID detection. The RFID
events display the behavior of the pigs represented by the daily duration and frequency of stay at the trough, the drinker,
the toy and the door. The analysis of the data and correlations so far indicate that lameness and coughing could be
detected automatically through this method. The analysis of the single RFID events and circadian rhythms seem to be
very promising to find suitable variables for disease detection. Further studies and additional analyses of the data are
planned at other hotspots and involving influencing variables such as atmospheric humidity and temperature. It will be
investigated, for example, whether other diseases can be detected by regarding drinking events or how visiting events on
different hotspots are correlated to each other. The influence of social facilitation is another point of interest. The aim is
to develop a prediction model based on a UHF-RFID system which could be used for early detection of diseases in
finishing pigs.
Acknowledgements
The project was supported by funds of the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL) based on a decision of
the Parliament of the Federal Republic of Germany via the Federal Office for Agriculture and Food (BLE) under the
innovation support programme. FKZ 28154T0910.
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... what is the pig doing between visits?) is not always clear (reviewed by Maselyne et al., 2015). In addition to the basic parameters, the frequency of non-nutritive visits (i.e. when the pig visits the feeder but does not consume any feed) (Garrido-Izard et al., 2020;Young and Lawrence, 1994) and the interval between visits or between meals (Herrera-Cáceres et al., 2019; Kapun et al., 2017Kapun et al., , 2016Nienaber et al., 1991) are parameters contributing to feeding patterns. Some authors have also included additional parameters, such as time spent eating simultaneously with other pigs (Kapun et al., 2017) or time spent queuing for J.D. Bus et al. ...
... Although the impact of clinical disease on feed intake is quite clear, there is less knowledge on its impact on the behaviours that underlie intake. Several studies have reported that daily feeding duration severely reduces during clinical disease (Adrion et al., 2018;Ahmed et al., 2014;Kapun et al., 2016;Putz et al., 2019), leading Brown-Brandl et al. (2016) to use modelling techniques to detect reductions in feeding duration to identify pigs suffering from pneumonia. With their model, they were indeed able to detect all 5 sick pigs and 17 out of their 21 sick days, but as these pigs were initially identified as suffering from pneumonia by their large drop in feed intake, not from clinical signs, they represent only unconfirmed cases. ...
... For example, pigs suffering from pneumonia reduced their daily feeding duration to between 0.33 and 48.33 min per day, maintained this for 1d to 12d, and completely stopped eating during 0d to 4d (Adrion et al., 2018). Moreover, reduced feeding duration may not occur during all types of disease, as it was reported for lame and coughing pigs but not in pigs suffering from diarrhoea or skin lesions (Kapun et al., 2016). This illustrates the necessity of distinguishing between disease types when studying impacts on feeding behaviours. ...
The potential of feeding patterns to assess generic welfare in growing-finishing pigs
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The welfare of growing-finishing pigs is important inherently to the pigs, but also for the societal acceptance and environmental impact of the husbandry system. Nevertheless, methods to monitor pig welfare throughout the whole growing-finishing phase have not yet been successfully developed. One possibility is to use electronic feeding stations to identify the feeding pattern of individual pigs, which consists of feed intake and the behaviours underlying intake (i.e. feeding frequency, duration and rate), and to process this data using an algorithm that links feeding patterns to pig welfare. Before such a monitoring system can be developed, a thorough understanding of both pig feeding patterns and their relationships with pig welfare is required. The aim of this review was to assess the current state of this understanding. We begin with a narrative review that describes the feeding patterns of growing-finishing pigs, and subsequently provide a systematic review of the relationships between pig feeding patterns and welfare. We focused on animal-based parameters of pig welfare, but also included resource-based parameters known to influence welfare (e.g. space allowance, environmental enrichment). We found that so far, studies have focused on physiological and behavioural welfare problems, while the affective part of welfare, both positive and negative, has been largely overlooked. Deviations from basal feeding patterns may occur during reduced welfare states, sometimes even preceding other clinical or behavioural manifestations of the problem. Particularly clear are the links between feed intake and physiological causes of reduced welfare, such as clinical health, thermal stress and tail biting wounds. The behaviours underlying intake provide further information, as they show distinct deviations in response to different physiological welfare problems and as their rapid responses may enable detection of disease at a subclinical stage. However, a wider range of clinical diseases should be studied before this knowledge can be applied. Behavioural welfare problems, such as abnormal behaviours and feed competition, mostly induce deviations in the feeding behaviours underlying intake but not intake itself, though more knowledge is required to confirm this finding. We conclude that feeding patterns are a promising tool to monitor generic pig welfare. Feed intake and the behaviours that underlie it should be used simultaneously, on a short time scale (i.e. within the day). It should be considered that the variation in feeding patterns between and potentially within pigs is large, and that this variation should be well-understood before welfare-relevant variation can be interpreted.
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... d for 18 weeks from the beginning of rearing to the end of fattening (i.e. beginning of slaughtering). For the different flavoured straw pellets in this study median exploration durations differed between 13.1 minutes (VA) and 18.0 minutes (FO) per pig and day during rearing and between 17.5 minutes (AL) and 20.8 minutes (control) during fattening.Kapun et al. (2016) used an UHF RFID system to record visits of healthy and sick pigs at the feeder, drinker, playing material and the door to the outside area. They found that fattening pigs spent an average of 8.2 minutes per pig and day at the playing material (piece of wood and plastic tube at a metal chain). However, it must be noted that also sick pi ...
... Dabei wurde mit einer Antennenleistung von 22,4 dBm die höchste Sensitivität (70,7 % in der Aufzucht, 79,3 % in der Mast) und Spezifität (99,4 % in der Aufzucht, 99,5 % in der Mast) erreicht. Das in dieser Arbeit eingesetzte UHF-Versuchsanstellungen vergleichbar istKapun et al., 2016). Fehlerhafte Lesungen können in der vorliegenden Arbeit aufgrund der berechneten Sensitivität und Spezifität nicht vollständig ausgeschlossen werden, sind jedoch auf dem kleinstmöglichen Niveau zu erwarten. ...
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Thesis
  • Jan 2021
Schwanzbeißen ist eine Verhaltensanomalie, die häufig bei konventionell gehaltenen Hausschweinen auftritt. Dabei kann es das Wohlergehen betroffener Schweine beeinträchtigen und ökonomische Verluste für den landwirtschaftlichen Betrieb bedeuten. Die Ursachen von Schwanzbeißen sind multifaktoriell, weshalb die bis heute gängigste Methode zur Reduktion von Schwanzschäden bei Schweinen das präventive Kupieren des Schwanzes darstellt. Neben dem invasiven Eingriff wirkt jedoch auch der Einsatz von Beschäftigungsmaterial reduzierend auf Schwanzschäden, indem das arttypische Explorationsverhalten gesteigert wird. Dabei stellt die schnelle Habituation von Schweinen eine Herausforderung bei der Auswahl geeigneter Beschäftigungsmaterialien dar. Im Rahmen des Projekts „Label-Fit“ wurden unterschiedliche organische Beschäftigungsmaterialien für Aufzucht- und Mastschweine untersucht, die in konventionellen Haltungssystemen mit Spaltenböden eingesetzt werden können. Das Ziel der vorliegenden Arbeit war die Identifikation von attraktivem Beschäftigungsmaterial anhand der Explorationsdauer der Tiere. Gleichzeitig wurde der Einfluss der eingesetzten Beschäftigungsmaterialien auf Schwanz- und Ohrschäden bei Schweinen mit unkupiertem Schwanz untersucht. Vor der Durchführung von drei Langzeituntersuchungen wurden zwei Wahlversuche zur Eingrenzung der für Schweine attraktiven organischen Beschäftigungsmaterialien durchgeführt. Dabei wurden den Schweinen in einem Trog mit sechs Fächern unterschiedlich strukturierte Materialien oder verschiedene fressbare Zusätze in Stroh parallel angeboten. Anhand der individuell erfassten Beschäftigungsdauer zeigten Schweine Präferenzen für pelletierte Materialien und gehäckseltes Stroh mit einem fressbaren Zusatz. Diese Ergebnisse wurden zur Auswahl von Beschäftigungsmaterialien für die anschließenden Langzeituntersuchungen herangezogen. Für die drei Langzeituntersuchungen wurden die mit Beschäftigungsmaterialien befüllten Beschäftigungstürme mit einem UHF-RFID-System ausgestattet, um die Beschäftigungsdauer der Schweine aufzuzeichnen. Beim Wechsel der alternierend angebotenen Beschäftigungsmaterialien wurden die Schwänze und Ohren der Schweine gemäß dem „Deutschen Schweine Boniturschlüssel“ bewertet. In der ersten Langzeituntersuchung erhielten die Schweine vier Beschäftigungsmaterialien mit unterschiedlichen Strukturen (Luzernepellets, Strohpellets, gehäckseltes Heu, gehäckseltes Stroh) im zweiwöchigen Wechsel. Dabei präferierten Aufzuchtschweine pelletierte Materialien und Mastschweine gehäckseltes Heu sowie Luzernepellets. Darüber hinaus stieg die Beschäftigungsdauer von der Aufzucht zur Mast an. Beim Einsatz der Materialien, die die höchste Beschäftigungsdauer in der Aufzucht erzielten (Luzernepellets oder Strohpellets), wurden die wenigsten Teilverluste am Schwanz erfasst. Jedoch traten beim Einsatz von Strohpellets in der Aufzucht die meisten Hautdurchbrechungen an den Schwänzen auf. Die zweite Langzeituntersuchung befasste sich mit der Frage, ob die Beschäftigungsdauer von Schweinen beim Einsatz von gehäckseltem Stroh gesteigert werden kann, wenn Maiskörner als fressbarer Zusatz untergemischt werden. Im Vergleich zu Schweinen, die gehäckseltes Stroh ohne Mais erhielten, zeigten Schweine, denen gehäckseltes Stroh mit Mais angeboten wurde, in der Aufzucht und Mast eine höhere Beschäftigungsdauer am Beschäftigungsturm. Die Beschäftigungsdauer konnte zudem von der Aufzucht zur Mast gesteigert werden, obwohl kein Materialwechsel innerhalb der Gruppen stattfand. Erstaunlicherweise traten bei den Schweinen, die gehäckseltes Stroh ohne Mais erhielten, im Vergleich zu den Schweinen, die gehäckseltes Stroh mit Mais erhielten, geringere Teilverluste am Schwanz auf. In der dritten Langzeituntersuchung wurden den Schweinen unterschiedlich aromatisierte Strohpellets im wöchentlichen Wechsel angeboten. Die höchste Beschäftigungsdauer wurde in der Aufzucht für Strohpellets mit Bratzwiebel- oder Mandel-Aroma erfasst. In der Mast beschäftigten sich die Schweine am längsten mit Strohpellets ohne Aroma oder mit Erdbeer-Aroma. Dabei konnte die Beschäftigungsdauer von der Aufzucht bis zur Mast konstant gehalten werden. Die meisten Hautdurchbrechungen am Schwanz traten in der Aufzucht bei der Verwendung von Vanille- oder Bratzwiebel-Aroma auf, wobei Vanille im Unterschied zu Bratzwiebel zu den Aromen mit den geringsten Beschäftigungsdauern zählte. Anhand der vorliegenden Untersuchungen konnten klare Präferenzen von Schweinen für bestimmte organische Beschäftigungsmaterialien gezeigt werden, die arttypisches Explorationsverhalten steigerten. Jedoch konnten Beschäftigungsmaterialien, für die eine hohe Beschäftigungsdauer erfasst wurde, Schwanzschäden (Längenverluste und Hautdurchbrechungen) nicht reduzieren. Dies verdeutlicht, dass neben dem Zugang zu Beschäftigungsmaterial weitere Faktoren auf die Prävalenz für Schwanzschäden einwirken, welche zusammenhängend betrachtet werden müssen.
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... Niedrigfrequenzsysteme (LF-RFID, 134,2 kHz) sind im Normalfall nur zur Erfassung von Einzeltieren einsetzbar, während Ultrahochfrequenzsysteme (UHF-RFID, 868 MHz) eine hohe Anzahl an Transpondern gleichzeitig erkennen können (Finkenzeller, 2012). Einzeln wurden beide Technologien bereits zur Aufzeichnung des Besuchsverhaltens von Mastschweinen genutzt (Brown-Brandl et al., 2013;Kapun et al., 2016). In diesem Versuch wurden beide RFID-Systeme hinsichtlich der Zuverlässigkeit und Genauigkeit der Erfassung sowie der Fähigkeit zur Simultanerfassung von Transponderohrmarken miteinander verglichen. ...
... Es ist zu beachten, dass die Ergebnisse nicht alleinig mit der verwendeten Technologie, sondern auch mit der Genauigkeit der Anpassung des Erfassungsbereiches an den Zielbereich und der verwendeten Hardware zusammenhängen. So wurden in weiteren Versuchen an einem Breifutterautomaten und einem frei hängenden Spielzeug für Mastschweine deutlich bessere Ergebnisse mit einem optimierten UHF-System erzielt (Kapun et al., 2016). ...
Comparison of LF-and UHF-RFID for detection of growing-finishing pigs at a playing device
Conference Paper
Full-text available
  • Sep 2017
A direct comparison of low-frequency (LF) and ultra-high frequency RFID (UHF) for the monitoring of the visiting behavior of pigs at locations in their environment has not been conducted yet. Thus, in this contribution a comparison of these technologies with regard to reliability, precision and the ability for simultaneous detection of animals is conducted for monitoring of a playing device for fattening pigs. The RFID data recorded in the experiment were aggregated to visiting events and compared with reference data from video surveillance. The results show that a more reliable monitoring of the animals was possible with the LF-RFID system and that even two animals could be detected simultaneously. However, the share of false positive readings was high with both systems. The results underline that, depending on kind and size of the location monitored, a different RFID technology can be advantageous, but the precise adjustment of the reading area is decisive in any case.
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... However, unlike LF and HF signals UFH-RFID signals are absorbed by water and reflected by metal and are therefore more susceptible to disturbances (Kern, 2006;Lampe et al., 2005). In recent years, UHF-RFID systems have successfully been tested for applications in farm animal husbandry, showing great potential inferring frequency and duration of visits to the feeding trough, drinker, enrichment material and door to an outdoor run (Adrion et al., 2018;Kapun et al., 2016). ...
Bite-o-Mat: A device to assess the individual manipulative behaviour of group housed pigs
Article
  • Feb 2022
  • COMPUT ELECTRON AGR
Tail biting is still an important problem in pig husbandry. In addition to addressing the underlying causes, the negative consequences of tail biting can be mitigated by detecting it early e.g. using behavioural changes and implementing intervention measures. Due to the labour intensity of behavioural observations, it would be highly advantageous to detect behavioural changes automatically. This study aimed at developing and validating an automatic device (“Bite-o-Mat”) to assess the individual manipulative behaviour of group-housed pigs. The Bite-o-Mat consisted of a single point load cell (SPLC) that recorded the force with which pigs manipulated a rope, and an UHF-RFID system to individually identify the manipulating pig. Data were recorded in a rearing (8 pigs) and a fattening pen (5 pigs) and validated using twelve hours of video recordings each, distributed across six days. Pigs were observed 596 (rearing) and 277 (fattening) times to manipulate the rope (=manipulation event) in the videos to which the automatically recorded data were compared. Using a linear mixed model, summarising data per manipulation event, it was possible to show that on average stronger forces are exerted on a rope during manipulation events than during times without manipulations and that these forces can be measured by a SPLC (manipulations vs. no manipulations, model estimates in kg; rearing: -0.01 vs. -0.004 (mean), fattening: -0.05 vs. -0.01 (mean)). Based on these results, an algorithm was developed to automatically detect manipulation events using the data of the SPLC. Validation of the algorithm using a second-by-second comparison to the video analysis, showed that it is suitable to detect manipulation events automatically in the rearing and fattening period (sensitivity: 0.60 (rearing and fattening); specificity: 0.87 (rearing), 0.93 (fattening); precision: 0.55 (rearing), 0.58 (fattening); accuracy: 0.81 (rearing), 0.88 (fattening)). In addition, we aimed to identify the manipulating pig with an UHF-RFID antenna. The performance parameters (sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, precision) of the UHF-RFID antenna confirmed that it is sufficiently suitable to detect the pigs within the reading range. Compared with the video recordings, 69% (rearing) and 82% (fattening) of pigs were correctly identified automatically to be the manipulating pigs by the UHF-RFID algorithm. These results indicate that the Bite-o-Mat is not only a promising device to automatically detect manipulative behaviour in group-housed pigs, but also to identify the manipulating animal.
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... For the different flavoured straw pellets in this study, median exploration durations differed between 13.1 min (VA) and 18.0 min (FO) per pig and day during rearing and between 17.5 min (AL) and 20.8 min (control) during fattening. Kapun et al. (2016) used an UHF RFID system to record visits of healthy and sick pigs at the feeder, drinker, playing material and the door to the outside area. They found that fattening pigs spent an average of 8.2 min per pig and day at the playing material (piece of wood and plastic tube at a metal chain). ...
Tasty straw pellets – Exploration of flavoured rooting material by pigs
Article
Full-text available
  • May 2021
Tail biting is a common problem in pigs kept in conventional fully slatted pens. Suitable enrichment materials can help to prevent the occurrence of this behavioural disorder by encouraging pigs to increase exploration behaviour. We investigated whether additional flavours can increase exploration behaviour in undocked pigs. Therefore, we offered straw pellets flavoured with either fried onion (FO), strawberry (SB), ginger, almond (AL), vanilla or without flavour (control) during rearing (eight groups in total) and fattening (16 groups in total). Flavoured pellets were offered in an altering order during intervals of 1 week in material dispensers. Exploration duration at the material dispensers was continuously recorded via an ultra-high-frequency radio-frequency identification system. Pigs were weighed weekly and their tail lengths and tail injuries were scored in four categories. For analysis, changes in tail length scores compared to the previous week were calculated as Δ-tail length. The different flavours affected pigs’ exploration durations in both rearing (factor flavour, P
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... However, since the intra-and inter-animal variability in behavior is known to be very high, it is crucial to use indicative behavioral parameters for the accurate detection of specific welfare impairment or illness to be detected. Since feeding is a very characteristic behavior of animals, it can be used as an indicator for illness in pigs and has been investigated by several authors , 2016Kapun et al., 2016;Adrion et al., 2018a;Maselyne et al., 2018). Other parameters, such as drinking behavior, social behaviors among animals and general activity level have also been evaluated (Kapun et al., 2017a(Kapun et al., , b, 2018. ...
A Review of Passive Radio Frequency Identification Systems for Animal Monitoring in Livestock Facilities
Article
  • Jan 2019
  • APPL ENG AGRIC
Animal facilities are increasing in size, while the availability of skilled workers is decreasing, thus, making it difficult for the farm laborers to ensure the health and well-being of all animals under their care. Passive Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) systems have been successfully used in animal facilities and research has identified potential applications in behavior monitoring for automated illness detection. While RFID signals range in frequency from 9 kHz to 5.8 GHz, the three most common frequencies are Low Frequency (LF, 125 kHz or 134.2 kHz), High Frequency (HF, 13.56 MHz), and Ultra-High Frequency (UHF, 865-868 MHz or 902-928 MHz). The objective of this article is to compare and evaluate the application of these three different RFID systems within large research facilities for livestock and poultry in terms of hardware characteristics, system design, and data processing and usage. Differences in tag construction, availability and cost are evident, but also basic differences in reader and antenna function, such as physics of communication, speed of detection, and anti-collision procedures exist. The systems have significant differences in reading ranges and are known to have varying influence of materials, especially water and metal, on the performance of the systems. However, the data streams, as well as methods of data processing and the creation of events (e.g., visits to a feeder), are similar for all systems. The characteristics mentioned do not necessarily identify an ideal RFID technology but reveal positive and negative aspects of each system. The three different RFID systems have been successfully applied in livestock and poultry facilities. Current research is focused on the utilization of the RFID data in prediction and decision models for illness, animal welfare, and management actions. Keywords: Behavior, Cattle, Frequency ranges, Health and welfare, Poultry, Swine, Transponder.
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... Due to the strong connection of behavior to different kinds of illnesses, analyzing a pig's behavior may lead to conclusions on the animal's health (Matthews et al., 2016;Weary et al., 2009). The RFID technology has already been used in different studies with the aim of a health monitoring for pigs (Brown-Brandl et al., 2016;Kapun et al., 2016;Kapun et al., 2017;Maselyne et al., 2017). ...
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... In this study, the number of RFID registrations per pig and day and the average inter-visit interval was analyzed as indicating parameters for changes in behavior. Kapun et al. (2016 and suggested several other parameters, e.g. the length of the night time break of a pig, the time of the first meal in the morning, changes in social structures or so-called virtual walking distances for detection of illness events. ...
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... The results of a first monitoring experiment with more developed UHF transponder ear tags of a size for pigs within the frame of this research project were presented by Kapun et al. (2016). ...
Adaption and assessment of a UHF-RFID system for livestock management
Thesis
Full-text available
  • Feb 2018
A prerequisite for the implementation of concepts of precision livestock farming is data acquisition on the level of the individual animal, which is only possible on a large scale by applying electronic animal identification. Radio-frequency identification (RFID) systems in the ultra-high frequency range (UHF, 860 – 960 MHz) offer the possibility of simultaneous detection of transponders and a variably adjustable read range of more than 3 m. Until now, these systems were, however, only insufficiently adapted to the operating conditions in livestock farming. In collaboration with industry partners, passive UHF-RFID transponders for integration into ear tags for cattle and pigs and readers have been developed and tested. The objective of this thesis was the adaption and assessment of this UHF-RFID system for livestock farming. In particular, 1) the construction and test of a static test bench for UHF-RFID ear tags, 2) the development of a method of measuring the influence of ear tissue on the performance of UHF-RFID ear tags, and 3) the application and validation of the UHF-RFID system for monitoring of trough visits of growing-finishing pigs should be carried out. The experiments supported the selection and further development of UHF transponder ear tags and reader antennas for application in livestock farming. A suitable test method for UHF-RFID technology in the fields of research covered was established and applied for the first time. It repeatedly became clear during the experiments that the greatest challenge for the application of UHF transponders in ear tags is the reduction of the sensitivity against ear tissue. In addition to the monitoring of animal health with UHF-RFID, further research could be carried out regarding the positioning of animals for measurement of motion activity, the combination of transponders with sensors, for example, to measure body temperature, and the utilisation of the technology for implementation of the Internet of Things in food supply chains.
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Adjustment of a UHF-RFID system for hotspot monitoring of fattening pigs
Conference Paper
Full-text available
  • Sep 2015
The aim of this research was to build up an ultra high-frequency radio frequency identification (UHF-RFID) system for simultaneous hotspot monitoring of fattening pigs. Visiting events of the pigs were registered at a drinker, a feed trough and a device with play material (“Porky Play”). Eight fattening pigs in a research barn were each tagged with a UHF-RFID ear tag. A reader with four external antennas was used for monitoring the hotspots. The RFID data were stored in a database and visiting events were created by aggregation of single readings. Frequency and duration of the RFID events were validated by video observation. First tests showed that the radiated power strongly influenced the results. Validation yielded a sensitivity of the RFID system between 20 % and 90 %, depending on the power radiated, place monitored and aggregation parameters for RFID events. The results indicate an optimisation potential by means of antenna orientation and aggregation parameters. The optimised UHF-RFID system is supposed to support long-time continuous health and behaviour monitoring of pigs in the future.
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How do fattening pigs spend their day?
Conference Paper
Full-text available
  • Sep 2014
Behaviour in pigs is closely related to their health and welfare status. Health and welfare problems can increase aggressive behaviour or decrease feeding and drinking behaviour. Lately, much attention is going towards automated measurements of behaviour aimed to identify problems in the barn. These systems need validation based on observations of behaviour as ‘gold standard’. We are currently testing the usefulness of a system with receivers mounted around the feeding and drinking place. In the present experiment, we observed the behaviour of 3 healthy barrows and 3 healthy gilts in a group of 59 during 3 days (approximately 12, 18 and 24 weeks of age) between 7h00 and 21h00. The 6 pigs were marked individually and observations were continuous. The pigs were housed in an automatically ventilated barn with partially slatted floor, 2 commercial round feeders (dry feed) and 4 drinker nipples. Weight of the pigs was 31.8 ± 4.7 kg, 56.2 ± 9.0 kg and 93.3 ± 12.2 kg (mean ± standard deviation) on the 3 observation days. Average daily gain of the pigs between the first and last observation day was 0.73 ± 0.11 kg/day. The pigs spent 68.14 ± 7.28 % of the daytime inactive, 13.40 ± 4.47 % exploring, 6.90 ± 1.23 % feeding, 4.90 ± 4.00 % social, 3.37 ± 1.71 % active, 2.24 ± 1.08 % aggressive and 1.05 ± 0.45 % drinking. Total activity was high around 12h00 and 14h00, but activity was even larger during the evenings. During 27.3 ± 12.1 % of the time, the pigs were close to one of the feeders (< 1 m distance, corresponding to 16 % of the pen). About half of the agonistic behaviour and one third of the social, exploratory and active behaviour occurred close to the feeder. In the daily schedule of the pigs differences between pigs and days were visible. Bouts of inactivity were alternated by bouts of activity. Of the 1962 feeding bouts, 42.41 % was immediately followed by aggression and 12.23 % was immediately followed by exploratory behaviour. Using these observations a sensor for measuring feeding behaviour will be validated.
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Measuring the drinking behaviour of individual pigs housed in group using radio frequency identification (RFID)
Article
Full-text available
  • May 2015
  • ANIMAL
Changes in the drinking behaviour of pigs may indicate health, welfare or productivity problems. Automated monitoring and analysis of drinking behaviour could allow problems to be detected, thus improving farm productivity. A high frequency radio frequency identification (HF RFID) system was designed to register the drinking behaviour of individual pigs. HF RFID antennas were placed around four nipple drinkers and connected to a reader via a multiplexer. A total of 55 growing-finishing pigs were fitted with radio frequency identification (RFID) ear tags, one in each ear. RFID-based drinking visits were created from the RFID registrations using a bout criterion and a minimum and maximum duration criterion. The HF RFID system was successfully validated by comparing RFID-based visits with visual observations and flow meter measurements based on visit overlap. Sensitivity was at least 92%, specificity 93%, precision 90% and accuracy 93%. RFID-based drinking duration had a high correlation with observed drinking duration (R 2=0.88) and water usage (R 2=0.71). The number of registrations after applying the visit criteria had an even higher correlation with the same two variables (R 2=0.90 and 0.75, respectively). There was also a correlation between number of RFID visits and number of observed visits (R 2=0.84). The system provides good quality information about the drinking behaviour of individual pigs. As health or other problems affect the pigs' drinking behaviour, analysis of the RFID data could allow problems to be detected and signalled to the farmer. This information can help to improve the productivity and economics of the farm as well as the health and welfare of the pigs.
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Radio frequency identification technologies for livestock management and meat supply chain traceability
Article
Full-text available
  • Mar 2013
  • CAN J ANIM SCI
Animal electronic identification could be exploited by farmers as an interesting opportunity to increase the efficiency of herd management and traceability. Although radio frequency identification (RFID) solutions for animal identification have already been envisaged, the integration of a RFID traceability system at farm level has to be carried out carefully, considering different aspects (farm type, number and species of animals, barn structure). The tag persistence on the animal after application, the tag-to-tag collisions in the case of many animals contemporarily present in the reading area of the same antenna and the barn layout play determinant roles in system reliability. The goal of this paper is to evaluate the RFID identification system performance and determine the best practice to apply these devices in livestock management. RFID systems were tested both in laboratory, on the farm and in slaughterhouses for the implementation of a traceability system with automatic animal data capture. For this purpose a complete system for animal identification and tracking, accomplishing regulatory compliance as well as supply chain management requirements, has been developed and is described in the paper. Results were encouraging for identification of calves both in farms and slaughterhouses, while in swine breeding, identification was critical for small piglets. In this case, the design of a RFID gate where tag-to-tag collisions are avoided should be envisaged.
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BOARD-INVITED REVIEW: Using behavior to predict and identify ill health in animals
Article
Full-text available
  • Nov 2008
  • J ANIM SCI
We review recent research in one of the oldest and most important applications of ethology: evaluating animal health. Traditionally, such evaluations have been based on subjective assessments of debilitative signs; animals are judged ill when they appear depressed or off feed. Such assessments are prone to error but can be dramatically improved with training using well-defined clinical criteria. The availability of new technology to automatically record behaviors allows for increased use of objective measures; automated measures of feeding behavior and intake are increasingly available in commercial agriculture, and recent work has shown these to be valuable indicators of illness. Research has also identified behaviors indicative of risk of disease or injury. For example, the time spent standing on wet, concrete surfaces can be used to predict susceptibility to hoof injuries in dairy cattle, and time spent nuzzling the udder of the sow can predict the risk of crushing in piglets. One conceptual advance has been to view decreased exploration, feeding, social, sexual, and other behaviors as a coordinated response that helps afflicted individuals recover from illness. We argue that the sickness behaviors most likely to decline are those that provide longer-term fitness benefits (such as play), as animals divert resources to those functions of critical short-term value such as maintaining body temperature. We urge future research assessing the strength of motivation to express sickness behaviors, allowing for quantitative estimates of how sick an animal feels. Finally, we call for new theoretical and empirical work on behaviors that may act to signal health status, including behaviors that have evolved as honest (i.e., reliable) signals of condition for offspring-parent, inter- and intra-sexual, and predator-prey communication.
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Circadian rhythms in the pig
Article
Full-text available
  • Feb 1985
  • Comp Biochem Physiol Physiol
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Hart, B. L. Biological basis of the behavior of sick animals. Neurosci. Biobehav. Rev. 12, 123-137
Article
Full-text available
  • Feb 1988
  • NEUROSCI BIOBEHAV R
The most commonly recognized behavioral patterns of animals and people at the onset of febrile infectious diseases are lethargy, depression, anorexia, and reduction in grooming. Findings from recent lines of research are reviewed to formulate the perspective that the behavior of sick animals and people is not a maladaptive response or the effect of debilitation, but rather an organized, evolved behavioral strategy to facilitate the role of fever in combating viral and bacterial infections. The sick individual is viewed as being at a life or death juncture and its behavior is an all-out effort to overcome the disease.
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Verhaltens- und Gesundheitsmonitoring für die Gruppenhaltung tragender Sauen
Thesis
  • Jan 2015
Die Anzahl deutscher Zuchtsauenhalter hat in den vergangenen 15 Jahren kontinuierlich abgenommen und gleichzeitig stiegen die Bestandsgrößen an. Dieser Trend wurde durch die obligatorische Umstellung auf die Gruppenhaltung von Wartesauen verstärkt. Größere Tierbestände stellen einerseits hohe Anforderungen an das Management und die Gesundheitsüberwachung der Einzeltiere, bieten andererseits aber auch Potentiale für die Automatisierung von Arbeitsgängen oder bei der Datengewinnung im Rahmen von indikatorgestützten Systemen. Das übergeordnete Ziel der Arbeit war die Konzeptionierung, Umsetzung und Bewertung eines Monitoringsystems zur Bestimmung von Gesundheits- und Verhaltensabweichungen bei Wartesauen in Gruppenhaltung. Hierzu wurde die sensor- und datentechnische Infrastruktur zur Erfassung tierindividueller Indikatoren als Fressereignisse, Trinkereignisse und zurückgelegte minimale Wegstrecken in einem Wartesauenstall mit dynamischer Großgruppe geschaffen. Es wurde die vorhandene RFID-Technik zweier elektronischer Futterabrufstationen (EFA) und einer Ebererkennung genutzt. Diese wurden durch den Einbau von zu-sätzlichen RFID-Antennen an den Tränken und den beiden Türen zwischen Auslauf und Stall ergänzt. Für die Bestimmung ausdosierter Wasservolumina wurden Durchflusszähler in die Zuleitungen aller acht Tränken eingebaut. Für die Auswertung der Fressereignisse und Berechnung von relativen Fressrängen wurden die Datenprotokolle der EFA genutzt. Über die kombinierte zeitliche Abfolge der Registrierungen an den 13 RFID-Antennen innerhalb des Wartesauenstalls wurden die tagesbezogenen tierindividuellen minimalen Wegstrecken kalkuliert. Die tierindividuelle Beurteilung des Gesundheitsstatus und der Verhaltensänderun-gen der Sauen erfolgte im Rahmen einer Beobachtungsstudie. Zusammenhänge zwischen den automatisch erfassten Indikatoren Fressereignisse, Trinkereignisse und Wegstrecken sowie den Gesundheits- oder Verhaltensänderungen wurden geprüft und das Potential zur Implementierung eines Monitoring- oder Vorhersagemodelles wurde bewertet. Vom 13.04.2012 bis 31.05.2013 wurden 29552 Tagesdatensätze von 199 verschie-denen Wartesauen der Paritäten 2 bis 11 erfasst und analysiert. In diesem Zeitraum wurden hinsichtlich der Gesundheitsbeeinträchtigungen nur wenige Krankheitsfälle dokumentiert, allerdings wurden bei den zweimal wöchentlich durchgeführten Beurteilungen des Fortbewegungsverhaltens mittels Locomotion Scoring teilweise mittlere und schwere Lahmheiten bei den Sauen festgestellt. Während der 372 ausgewerteten Messtage wurden 69577 Trinkereignisse mit Volu-mina von 2 mL bis 11,45 L aufgezeichnet. Durchschnittlich dosierten die Sauen 2,4-mal je Tag 0,53 L Wasser aus, allerdings wurden für 25 % der Tagesdatensätze kei-ne Trinkereignisse festgestellt. Des Weiteren konnte eine deutliche 24 h-Periodik der Wasseraufnahme mit Maxima am Vor- und Nachmittag beobachtet werden. Nahmen Sauen kein Futter an der EFA auf, dosierten sie tendenziell auch geringere Wassermengen an den Tränken aus. Parität und Temperaturdifferenzen schienen die Wasseraufnahme nur geringfügig zu beeinflussen. Im Gegensatz dazu ergaben die Auswertungen für lahme Sauen eine höchstsignifikante geringere Anzahl an tierindividuellen Trinkereignissen, ausdosierten Wassermengen an den Tränken, geringere kalkulierte minimal zurückgelegte Wegstrecken und Aufenthaltsdauern an der Ebererkennung im Vergleich zu nicht lahmen Sauen. Die Detektion von Umrauschern über die Betrachtung tierindividueller Aufenthalts-dauern an der Ebererkennung mit Hilfe eines Schwellenwertmodells war gut möglich. Beim Vergleich von unauffälligen Sauen und Umrauschern konnte tendenziell ebenso ein Rückgang der ausdosierten Wassermengen und Anzahl an Trinkereignissen festgestellt werden. Die Auswertungen der Fressreihenfolge an den elektronischen Futterabrufstationen und die Bestimmung von relativen Fressrängen ergaben keine signifikanten Unterschiede für auffällige und unauffällige Tiere. Es konnten tendenzielle Einflüsse durch Alter, Lahmheit und Umrauschen auf die Besuchsreihenfolge an den EFA bzw. auf die relativen Fressränge beobachtet werden. Für das Fortbewegungsverhalten von Wartesauen in Großgruppen konnten Anhaltswerte für mögliche zurückgelegte Wegstrecken gewonnen werden. Bisher waren hier nur sehr wenige Literaturwerte zu finden. Managementbedingte Maßnahmen wie z.B. die Integration neuer Tiere in die Gruppe schienen kaum einen Einfluss auf die untersuchten Indikatoren zu haben. Die Machbarkeit eines tierindividuellen Monitoringansatzes durch die Echtzeitverar-beitung von Sensordaten in einer Wartesauengruppe sowie die Anbindung an eine Managementsoftware konnten gezeigt werden. Insgesamt erschwerte jedoch die sehr großen Tierinter- und Tierintravariabilität für die Parameter Trinkereignisse, Fressereignisse und minimale Wegstrecken die Definition einzeltierbezogener Monitoringmodelle zur indikatorgestützten Krankheitsfrüherkennung. Hier sind noch weiterführende Untersuchungen zu Indikatoren, Sensoren und Auswertealgorithmen denkbar.
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Analysis of feeding behavior of group housed growing-finishing pigs
Article
  • Aug 2013
  • COMPUT ELECTRON AGR
Feeding behavior and time spent eating contains valuable information that can be used for managing livestock, identifying sick animals, and determining genetic differences within a herd. Individual animal feeding behavior, in a commercial-sized pen, was recorded using radio-frequency identification (RFID) technology and a series of multiplexers. Data were collected on 960 pigs (mixed barrows, 406 and gilts, 600) over 4 grow-out periods. The animals entered the facility at 24.6+/-5.4kg (mean+/-standard deviation) at approximately 65days of age and exited the facility at 101.4+/-13.8kg (between 116 and 133days later). Time spent at the feeder was analyzed for the effects of days on feed, sex, weight gain, and health effects. The amount of time spent at the feeder averaged 68.8minday^-^1pig^-^1 over the grow-out period, and increased from the day the pigs enter the facility (24.0+/-1.6minday^-^1pig^-^1; mean+/-standard error) until plateauing at approximately 40days later (76.7+/-2.4minday^-^1pig^-^1; age~105days). After the plateau, barrows spent 13.6 more minutes per day at the feeder than gilts. Pigs classified as 'high gaining' (79.2+/-5.1minday^-^1pig^-^1) spent more time at the feeder than pigs classified as either 'normal' (72.6+/-2.6minday^-^1pig^-^1) or 'low gaining' (67.6+/-5.3minday^-^1pig^-^1). This initial manuscript demonstrates the potential of utilizing feeding behavior or time spent eating as a method of managing animals.
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Validation of a High Frequency Radio Frequency Identification (HF RFID) system for registering feeding patterns of growing-finishing pigs
Article
  • Mar 2014
  • COMPUT ELECTRON AGR
Automated monitoring of the feeding patterns of growing-finishing pigs would allow detecting problems with individual pigs or groups of pigs and thus improving health, welfare and productivity of the farm. In this paper a High Frequency Radio Frequency Identification (HF RFID) system was validated for its suitability to register individual pigs’ feeding patterns at a round trough in a group-housing context. High Frequency RFID antennas were installed above the troughs of a commercially available type of round feeder to identify feeding pigs fitted with one or two passive RFID tags on their ears. A multiplexer was used to connect multiple antennas to a single reader. During 11.5 h, video observations of 20 focal pigs (equipped with two tags) at an age of 16 weeks were performed to validate the system. A large variation in feeding patterns of the 20 focal pigs was found. Correlation between the number of registrations per pig and the feeding duration on video was low (R2 = 0.53) mainly due to four pigs with specific feeding behaviour (with the four pigs excluded: R2 = 0.88). The RFID registrations of the 20 focal pigs – with irregular time gaps between them – were compared with instantaneous video samples using several time window sizes around the video sample. The specificity for individual pigs with one or two tags was always above 85%, but sensitivity varied for individual pigs, tags and with different time windows used. A quantitative comparison between the use of one or two tags per pig was made based on a receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve. For two tags per pig a sensitivity of 88.58% and a specificity of 98.34% can be reached with a time window size of 9 s. For one tag per pig, sensitivity is only above 85% at a time window of size 31 s. Of the total number of RFID registrations 77.11% occurred during feeding visits, and 92.23% occurred during or within 10 s of feeding visits on video. This system showed good potential for measuring feeding patterns of growing-finishing pigs in commercial pig houses, for research purposes, or to detect potential problems with pigs by signalling changes in the registered feeding patterns.
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