Use of a Tri-Axial Accelerometer Can Reliably Detect Play Behaviour in Newborn Calves
Use of a Tri-Axial Accelerometer Can Reliably Detect Play Behaviour in Newborn Calves
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DOI：
10.3390/ani10071137
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发表时间：
2020-07-01
期刊：
影响因子：
3
通讯作者：
McKeegan, Dorothy
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Gladden, Nicola;Cuthbert, Erin;McKeegan, Dorothy
传统上，健康和生产措施被用来评估农场动物福利，但这些措施并不包括福利的所有方面。近年来，“积极的动物福利”的概念已经获得了动力，这与良好的动物生活防止负面体验并促进积极体验的概念相一致。游戏行为被认为是积极的动物福利的良好指标。动物佩戴的加速度计（运动传感器）可用于监测活动，作为不同行为的代理，比传统的行为观察耗时少得多。在这项研究中，我们评估了市售的腿安装加速度计是否可以可靠地识别新生奶牛的玩耍行为。我们的研究结果表明，加速度计技术可用于确定新生小牛在生命的第一个48小时内表现出的玩耍行为量，我们讨论了其在未来新生小牛福利评估中的应用潜力。传统上，农场动物的福利评估侧重于健康和生产结果。然而，积极的福利不仅仅是没有消极的福利，而是值得生活的重要组成部分。游戏行为被广泛认为是积极情绪的指标，因为它是一种“奢侈”行为。直接视觉观察被认为是最准确的行为分析方法，但它耗时费力。人们对使用远程监测技术来量化行为的兴趣越来越大。我们比较了从安装在新生奶牛小牛上的市售三轴加速度计输出的数据（“运动指数”（MI））与相同小牛的视频片段，重点是玩耍行为。超过48小时的运动指数值与游戏行为的持续时间和游戏次数呈正相关。在每一个取样间隔中，对于识别游戏行为具有最佳灵敏度和特异性的运动指数阈值在1分钟分辨率下为MI >= 2.5（灵敏度（Se）= 98.0%;特异性（Sp）= 92.9%），15分钟分辨率时MI >= 24.5（Se = 98.0%; Sp = 89.9%），但这些值始终高估了观察到玩耍的样本间隔的总体比例。最好地反映从视觉一零采样获得的结果的MI是MI >= 23对于1分钟的间隔和MI >= 62对于15分钟的间隔，因此，这可能是一个更保守的方法，以确定从加速度计产生的数据的游戏行为的基础。我们的研究结果表明，加速度计生成的数据可以有效地指示新生小牛长达48小时的玩耍行为量，为在未来的工作中识别这一重要参数提供了一种有效的方法。
Simple Summary Traditionally, health and production measures have been used to assess farm animal welfare, but these do not encompass all aspects of welfare. In recent years, the concept of "positive animal welfare" has been gaining momentum, in line with the notion that a good animal life prevents negative experiences and also promotes positive experiences. Play behaviour is considered to be a good indicator of positive animal welfare. Accelerometers (movement sensors) worn by animals can be used to monitor activity as a proxy for different behaviours in a much less time-consuming manner than traditional behavioural observations. In this study, we assessed whether a commercially available leg-mounted accelerometer could reliably identify play behaviour in newborn dairy calves. Our results showed that accelerometer technology can be used to identify the amount of play behaviour exhibited by newborn calves in the first 48 h of life, and we discuss its potential for use in the assessment of the welfare of newborn calves in the future. Traditionally, the welfare assessment of farm animals has focused on health and production outcomes. Positive welfare is, however, not merely the absence of negative welfare and is an important part of a life worth living. Play behaviour is widely considered to be an indicator of positive emotions because it is a "luxury" behaviour. Direct visual observation is considered the most accurate method of behavioural analysis, but it is time consuming and laborious. There is increasing interest in the use of remote monitoring technology to quantify behaviour. We compared the data output ("motion index" (MI)) from a commercially available tri-axial accelerometer fitted to newborn dairy calves to video footage of the same calves, with a focus on play behaviour. The motion index values over 48 h were positively correlated with both the duration of play behaviour and the number of play bouts. The motion index threshold in each sample interval with the optimal sensitivity and specificity for the identification of play behaviour was MI >= 2.5 at a 1 min resolution (sensitivity (Se) = 98.0%; specificity (Sp) = 92.9%) and MI >= 24.5 at a 15 min resolution (Se = 98.0%; Sp = 89.9%), but these values consistently overestimated the overall proportion of sample intervals in which play was observed. The MI that best reflected the results obtained from visual one-zero sampling was MI >= 23 for 1 min intervals and MI >= 62 for 15 min intervals-this may therefore be the basis of a more conservative approach to the identification of play behaviour from accelerometer-generated data. Our results indicate that accelerometer-generated data can usefully indicate the amount of play behaviour shown by newborn calves for up to 48 h, providing an efficient method for identifying this important parameter in future work.