Analysis of aggressive behaviours of pigs by automatic video recordings

  • Authors:

  • Maciej Oczak;Gunel Ismayilova;Annamaria Costa;Stefano Viazzi;Lilia Thays Sonoda;Michaela Fels;Claudia Bahr;Jörg Hartung;Marcella Guarino;Daniel Berckmans;Erik Vranken

  • Affiliations:

  • Fancom Research, Panningen, Industrieterrein 34, 5981 NK Panningen, The Netherlands and M3-BIORES: Measure, Model, Manage Bioresponses, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Kasteelpark Arenberg 30, B-3 ...;Department of Health, Animal science and Food Safety, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Universití degli Studi, via Celoria 10, 20133 Milan, Italy;Department of Health, Animal science and Food Safety, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Universití degli Studi, via Celoria 10, 20133 Milan, Italy;M3-BIORES: Measure, Model, Manage Bioresponses, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Kasteelpark Arenberg 30, B-3001 Leuven, Belgium;University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover, Foundation, Institute for Animal Hygiene, Animal Welfare and Farm Animal Behaviour, Buenteweg 17p, 30559 Hannover, Germany;University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover, Foundation, Institute for Animal Hygiene, Animal Welfare and Farm Animal Behaviour, Buenteweg 17p, 30559 Hannover, Germany;M3-BIORES: Measure, Model, Manage Bioresponses, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Kasteelpark Arenberg 30, B-3001 Leuven, Belgium;University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover, Foundation, Institute for Animal Hygiene, Animal Welfare and Farm Animal Behaviour, Buenteweg 17p, 30559 Hannover, Germany;Department of Health, Animal science and Food Safety, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Universití degli Studi, via Celoria 10, 20133 Milan, Italy;M3-BIORES: Measure, Model, Manage Bioresponses, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Kasteelpark Arenberg 30, B-3001 Leuven, Belgium;Fancom Research, Panningen, Industrieterrein 34, 5981 NK Panningen, The Netherlands and M3-BIORES: Measure, Model, Manage Bioresponses, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Kasteelpark Arenberg 30, B-3 ...

  • Venue:
  • Computers and Electronics in Agriculture
  • Year:
  • 2013

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Abstract

Aggression among pigs in today's production systems results in negative impact on health and welfare of animals as well as on productivity of the systems. Precision Livestock Farming technology might potentially offer a possibility to monitor and reduce the level of aggression and hence its negative impact. This paper reports about the initial part of a larger study investigating the possibilities of applying continuous automatic monitoring of aggressive behaviour among pigs. It investigates how behavioural patterns in pig's aggressive behaviour can be identified and utilized in order to predict severe forms of aggression (biting) expressed in later phases of aggressive interactions. An experiment was carried out at a commercial farm on a group of 11 male pigs weighing on average 23kg and kept in a pen of 4mx2.5m. During the first 3days after mixing in total 8h of video recording were registered with a top view camera for later analysis of animal behaviour. As a result of labelling of the video recordings, 157 aggressive interactions were identified with 12 behaviour types expressed for 860 times within the interactions. The identified interactions were divided into interactions that led to biting and those that did not lead to biting behaviour. The interactions that led to biting behaviour accounted for 36.3% (57) of all aggressive interactions while interactions that did not lead to biting behaviour were 63.7% (100) of the interactions. The average duration of initiating (nosing) phase of aggressive interactions (3.32s) lasted longer (P