Automatic early warning of tail biting in pigs: 3D cameras can detect lowered tail posture before an outbreak

Abstract

Tail biting is a major welfare and economic problem for indoor pig producers worldwide. Low tail posture is an early warning sign which could reduce tail biting unpredictability. Taking a precision livestock farming approach, we used Time-of-flight 3D cameras, processing data with machine vision algorithms, to automate the measurement of pig tail posture. Validation of the 3D algorithm found an accuracy of 73.9% at detecting low vs. not low tails (Sensitivity 88.4%, Specificity 66.8%). Twenty-three groups of 29 pigs per group were reared with intact (not docked) tails under typical commercial conditions over 8 batches. 15 groups had tail biting outbreaks, following which enrichment was added to pens and biters and/or victims were removed and treated. 3D data from outbreak groups showed the proportion of low tail detections increased pre-outbreak and declined post-outbreak. Pre-outbreak, the increase in low tails occurred at an increasing rate over time, and the proportion of low tails was higher one week pre-outbreak (-1) than 2 weeks pre-outbreak (-2). Within each batch, an outbreak and a non-outbreak control group were identified. Outbreak groups had more 3D low tail detections in weeks -1, +1 and +2 than their matched controls. Comparing 3D tail posture and tail injury scoring data, a greater proportion of low tails was associated with more injured pigs. Low tails might indicate more than just tail biting as tail posture varied between groups and over time and the proportion of low tails increased when pigs were moved to a new pen. Our findings demonstrate the potential for a 3D machine vision system to automate tail posture detection and provide early warning of tail biting on farm.

Body expressions of emotions: does animals have it?

“…However, Grant (2004) has previously shown that calves and lambs raise their tails while they suck, and qualitative observations have shown that tame sheep raise their tails while being stroked by humans. Reimert et al (2013), Futro et al (2018) e Larsen et al (2018) suggest that tail movements, in general, may be a good behavioral indicator for positive emotions in pigs. The authors found that the tail movement and the large number of changes in their position were observed more frequently during positive and rewarding events as compared to negative events.…”

Peer Review #3 of "Integrating the RFID identification system for Charolaise breeding bulls with 3D imaging for virtual archive creation (v0.1)"

“…In particular, 3D imaging is a technology that is widely deployed in several sectors. In livestock, the deployment of the technology based on 3D digital imaging is in its infancy and the few papers on this topic testify to the cutting edge research exploring this new frontier of PLF (Konsgro, 2014;D'eath et al, 2018). This paper describes an innovative and technological method that was explored to assess the potential of the integration of RFID for animal identification with 3D images of the real bull for the evaluation of the Charolaise breeding bull.…”

Relação entre a expressão corporal e facial e o estado emocional de bezerros de raças leiteiras

“…Alguns autores Sandem e Braastad, 2005;Reefmann et al, 2009ª; Wemelsfelder et al, 2001;Reefmann et al, 2009ª;All e Terms, 2013;Stellato et al, 2017;Oliveira e Keeling, 2018;Futro et al, 2018;Larsen et al, 2018;Wallgren et al, 2019) foram publicadas com o objetivo de relacionar a movimentação da cauda, como uma área corporal, com a expressão de emoção frente a diferentes situações, em várias espécies.…”

“…Os comportamentos de medo em filhotes de cães, foram estudados por (Reefmann et al, 2009;Futro et al, 2018;Larsen et al, 2018;Wallgren et al, 2019) Alguns autores Müller, 2015;Barros et al, 2017;Lu et al, 2017;Amelia et al, 2018;Kopaczka et al, 2018) As características de dor comprometeram 5 áreas na face dos bovinos:…”

“…cauda enquanto mamam e, observações qualitativas mostraram que ovelhas mansas levantam suas caudas enquanto são afagadas por seres humanos.,Futro et al, (2018) eLarsen et al, (2018) sugerem que os movimentos de cauda, em geral, podem ser um bom indicador comportamental para emoções positivas em suínos. Os autores encontraram que o balançar de cauda e o grande número de mudanças em sua posição foram observadas com maior frequência durante eventos positivos e Em humanos a expressão facial foi bastante estudada através de mudanças em características no rosto.…”