A novel accelerometry approach combining information on classified behaviors and quantified physical activity for assessing health status of cattle: a preliminary study
A novel accelerometry approach combining information on classified behaviors and quantified physical activity for assessing health status of cattle: a preliminary study
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DOI：
10.1016/j.applanim.2021.105220
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发表时间：
2021-01-16
影响因子：
2.3
通讯作者：
Hirooka, Hiroyuki
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Uenishi, Shogo;Oishi, Kazato;Hirooka, Hiroyuki
动物行为评估提供了有关动物健康和福祉的信息。在这项初步研究中，我们研究了加速度测量方法的有效性，以评估牛的健康状况的变化，结合身体活动量化的动态身体加速度（DBA）和定性行为分类数据。虽然在日本，向育肥牛饲喂低维生素A（VA）日粮是提高牛肉大理石花纹的流行技术，但限制VA对育肥牛行为的影响尚不清楚。因此，VA限制对饲养场阉牛行为变化的影响作为评估健康状况变化的一个例子，通过该方法进行评估。将10头日本黑肥育阉牛分为VA限制组（RES）和补充组（WES）（每组5头）。从11月龄到20月龄，RES阉牛饲喂的VA比普通阉牛低。在18月龄和24月龄时对肉牛的血液VA浓度、加速度和分类行为进行了测量。将加速度计安装在每个转向器的背侧，并在10 Hz下测量三个轴向加速度。处理原始加速度数据以计算每秒矢量DBA（VeDBA）。在一天内记录8.5小时的阉牛行为，每秒视觉分类为躺卧、站立、行走或进食。结果显示，18月龄时RES组的VA血浓度低于RES组（P < 0.05）（分别为53.2和95.6 IU/dL），但24月龄时两组的VA血浓度相似。所有VA浓度均超过推荐的最小值，没有公牛显示VA缺乏的临床表现，表明VA限制按预期得到控制。两组之间分类行为的持续时间和总体平均VeDBA相似。两个年龄段RES组的VeDBA均高于RES组（P < 0.05）。结果表明，VA限制下的动物在18个月龄时可能会轻微改变其步态作为应激反应，即使在24个月龄时血液VA浓度增加后，也可能会检测到这种反应的残留;通过加速度计量化了视觉分类无法检测到的行为的微小变化。在未来，自动行为分类和量化的身体活动（如DBA）的组合将有助于对动物健康和福祉的反馈。
Evaluation of animal behavior provides information on health and well-being in animals. In this preliminary study, we investigated the effectiveness of an accelerometry approach to evaluate changes in health status of cattle by combining physical activity quantified by dynamic body acceleration (DBA) and qualitative behavioral classification data. Although feeding low vitamin A (VA) diets to fattening cattle is a popular technique to enhance marbling of beef in Japan, the effects of VA restriction on behavior of fattening cattle have been unclear. Therefore, the effect of VA restriction on behavioral change in feedlot steers was assessed by the approach as an example of evaluation of the change in health status. Ten Japanese Black fattening steers were divided into VA restricted (RES) and supplemented (SUP) groups (five in each group). The RES steers were fed lower VA diets than SUP from 11 to 20 months of age. The measurements of blood VA concentrations, accelerations and classified behaviors of the steers were conducted at 18 and 24 months of age. An accelerometer was fitted dorsally to each steer and three axial accelerations were measured at 10 Hz. The raw acceleration data was processed to calculate vectorial DBA (VeDBA) per second. Behavior of the steers was recorded for 8.5 h on one day and visually classified per second as lying, standing, walking or feeding. As the results, the blood VA concentration at 18 months of age was lower in RES than SUP (P < 0.05) (53.2 and 95.6 IU/dL, respectively) but the concentration was similar between the groups at 24 months of age. All VA concentrations were over the recommended minimum value and none of the steers showed clinical manifestations of VA deficiency, indicating that VA restriction was controlled as expected. The durations of classified behaviors and the overall mean VeDBA were similar between the groups. However, the VeDBA for walking was higher in RES than SUP at both ages (P < 0.05). The results suggested that animals under VA restriction might slightly alter their gait as a stress response at 18 months of age and a residual of this might be detected even after the increase of blood VA concentration at 24 months of age; small changes in behavior that could not be detectable by visual classification were quantified via accelerometry. In the future, a combination of automatic behavioral classification and quantified physical activity such as DBA will be useful for feedback on animal health and well-being.