Characterization of inappetent sheep in a feedlot using radio-tracking technology1

Abstract

The feeding and drinking behaviours of sheep were monitored using RFID technology at a commercial pre-embarkation feedlot in Western Australia with the aim of characterizing feeding and drinking patterns of inappetent sheep that might allow them to be treated. Feeding and drinking behaviours of sheep were compared with their survival and change in body condition. Patterns of number of visits and the time spent at feed and water troughs were analyzed for a total of 8,206 sheep, representing four consignments that were monitored for a range of 6-31 d. Data for feeding and drinking behaviours were compared for the first 6 d. For animals that were alive at exit, 18.9% of sheep attended the feed trough for less than 0.25 h d-1 (15 min per day) on day 1; this decreased to only 2.4% of sheep by day 6. Of the sheep monitored, 0.93% died (n = 76); Salmonella spp. infection was the leading cause of death (n = 40; 52.6% of all deaths) across all months and was accompanied with inanition. There was marked variability in the average time spent at the feed trough for sheep that died eventually from salmonella/inanition (contributing to the lack of statistical difference in time spent at feed trough between sheep dying from different causes; P = 0.056). Over half (55%) of the animals diagnosed with salmonella/inanition spent an average of less than 0.50 h d-1 (30 min per day) and 45% less than 0.25 h d-1 at the feed trough. There was a negative correlation (r) in time spent at the feed trough overtime for individual sheep that died from salmonella/inanition, indicating that these individuals went off their feed. This pattern was not evident for animals that died from other causes (significant difference in r values between five categories of cause of death; P = 0.040). Characterization of feeding behaviour of sheep that died from salmonella/inanition therefore appears to require more than simply monitoring daily intake. There was no difference in time spent at water troughs between sheep that died or were alive at exit (average 0.30 ± 0.23 h d-1). This study reveals that the patterns of feeding and drinking behaviours during pre-embarkation feedlotting do not readily allow identification of animals that warrant singling out for veterinary care or alternative feed arrangements. This result highlights the need for experienced stockmanship in handling these animals.

An RFID-Based Automated Individual Perching Monitoring System for Group-Housed Poultry

“…The average performance (mean ± SD) of the APMS units was 99.83% ± 0.05 % for sensitivity, 99.93% ± 0.05% for specificity, 99.67% ± 0.13% for precision, and 99.91% ± 0.05% for accuracy. The developed APMS in this study demonstrated a much-improved performance compared to other RFID systems applied in animal behavior research to date (Adrion et al, 2018;Barnes et al, 2018;Brown-Brandl et al, 2018;Li et al, 2017). First, with the customized antennas, attachment of the transponders, and load cell data correction, this system achieved very high performance indicators.…”

“…To date, RFID is one of the most popular technologies that has been used to identify individual animals. It has been applied in animal behavior research of pigs (Adrion et al, 2018;Brown-Brandl et al, 2018;Maselyne et al, 2014), chicken (Campbell et al, 2017;Li et al, 2017;Li et al, 2018), cattle (Brown-Brandl and Eigenberg, 2015;Menzies et al, 2018), and sheep (Barnes et al, 2018;Doughty et al, 2018).…”

A RFID-Based Monitoring System for Characterization of Perching Behaviors of Individual Poultry

“…The developed APMS in this study showed a much improved performance compared to other RFID systems applied in animal behavior research to date (Li et al, 2017, Adrion et al, 2017, Adrion et al, 2018, Barnes et al, 2018. First and foremost, with the customized antennas, attachment of the transponders, and load cell data correction (or even without the weigh-based correction), this system demonstrates a set of superior performance indicators.…”

“…To date, one of the most popular technologies for identifying individual animals is the RFID technology. It has been applied in animal behavior research of pigs (Adrion et al, 2018), poultry (Li et al, 2017), cattle (Adrion et al, 2017), and sheep (Barnes et al, 2018).…”

Developing an Animal Welfare Assessment Protocol for Livestock Transported by Sea

“…A shorter-term measure of feeding was required for our protocol; consequently, the number of troughs, the amount of feed available and cleanliness of feed troughs were included. The reviewed protocols do not include an animal-based measure to quantify feed intake; therefore, we developed a measure described as Feed Behaviour Score, because feeding behaviour is particularly important as it is informative about the immediate level of hunger, social competition for feed [41], and appetitive response to climatic challenges [42][43][44]. The Welfare Quality ® protocol contains additional measures for water provision, including water availability and cleanliness.…”