UC Davis

The drive for producers and researchers to optimize productivity and sustainability in animals has created a new management system, precision livestock farming, that utilizes modern technology in order to access animal welfare. New technological innovations, such as sensors, have the ability to continuously monitor in real time individual agricultural species. They are affordable, reliable, easy-to-use, and can be easily applied to whatever parameter is being analyzed. Whether the sensors are wearable or close proximity to the animal, they provide precise measurements in a minimally invasive way. Two types of sensors, acoustic monitoring devices and accelerometers, have been used to examine the different components of animal welfare. The sound an animal makes contains vital information about its well-being. Acoustic devices such as microphones and sound-based monitoring systems have been used to study diseases, stress, foraging behaviors, and more. We proposed to utilize acoustic sensors to determine how animals use their environment, but that the study was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. A common wearable device for animal monitoring is the accelerometer which measures changes in movement over time. In order to evaluate hen’s behavior throughout the different stages of infestation of northern fowl mites, we fitted three-axis accelerometer sensors on 48 brown laying hens. Foraging, preening, dustbathing, and shaking were recorded during four phases throughout the study: Phase 1= prior to infestation, Phase 2= low levels of mites (early infestation), Phase 3= high levels of mites (peak infestation), Phase 4= treated (no mites). Hens spent significantly increasing amount of time preening and dustbathing as mite infestation levels increased (p < 0.0001) and significantly reduced the amount of time performing these behaviors after they were treated with acaricide. Foraging significantly increased from Phase 1 to Phase 2 and stayed consistently high throughout the entire study, however the results were not significant. There was significant decrease in shaking behavior when hens went from no mites to low levels of mites, and then it significantly increased from low levels of mites to high levels of mites and from high levels of mites and to when the hens were treated. The treated birds perform shaking behaviors approximately the same amount of time as the baseline. These results indicate a possibility that accelerometer would be a useful tool for detecting behavioral changes during mite outbreaks on chickens. Technological sensors provide real-time information on individual animals which allows the potential for producers to make reformative decisions in management based on an individual’s need or well-being.