Maselyne Jarissa, Saeys Wouter, Van Nuffel Annelies
Division Mechatronics Biostatistics and Sensors (MeBioS), Department of Biosystems, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Kasteelpark Arenberg 30 bus 2456, 3001 Heverlee, Belgium; Technology and Food Science Unit - Agricultural Engineering research area, Institute for Agricultural and Fisheries Research (ILVO), Burg. van Gansberghelaan 115 bus 1, 9820 Merelbeke, Belgium.
Division Mechatronics Biostatistics and Sensors (MeBioS), Department of Biosystems, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Kasteelpark Arenberg 30 bus 2456, 3001 Heverlee, Belgium.
Physiol Behav. 2015 Jan;138:37-51. doi: 10.1016/j.physbeh.2014.09.012. Epub 2014 Oct 20.
The study of animal feeding behaviour is of interest to understand feeding, to investigate the effect of treatments and conditions or to predict illness. This paper reviews the different steps to undertake when studying animal feeding behaviour, with illustrations for group-housed pigs. First, one must be aware of the mechanisms that control feeding and the various influences that can change feeding behaviour. Satiety is shown to largely influence free feeding (ad libitum and without an operant condition) in animals, but 'free' feeding seems a very fragile process, given the many factors that can influence feeding behaviour. Second, a measurement method must be chosen that is compatible with the goal of the research. Several measurement methods exist, which lead to different experimental set-ups and measurement data. Sensors are available for lab conditions, for research on group-housed pigs and also for on-farm use. Most of these methods result in a record of feeding visits. However, these feeding visits are often found to be clustered into meals. Thus, the third step is to choose which unit of feeding behaviour to use for analysis. Depending on the situation, either meals, feeding visits, other raw data, or a combination thereof can be suitable. Meals are more appropriate for analysing short-term feeding behaviour, but this may not be true for disease detection. Further research is therefore needed. To cluster visits into meals, an appropriate analysis method has to be selected. The last part of this paper provides a review and discussion of the existing methods for meal determination. A variety of methods exist, with the most recent methods based on the influence of satiety on feeding. More thorough validation of the recent methods, including validation from a behavioural point of view and uniformity in the applied methods is therefore necessary.
对动物摄食行为的研究有助于理解摄食过程、探究处理方式和条件的影响或预测疾病。本文回顾了研究动物摄食行为时需要采取的不同步骤，并以群养猪为例进行说明。首先，必须了解控制摄食的机制以及可能改变摄食行为的各种影响因素。饱腹感在很大程度上影响动物的自由采食（随意采食且无操作性条件），但鉴于有许多因素会影响摄食行为，“自由”采食似乎是一个非常脆弱的过程。其次，必须选择一种与研究目标相匹配的测量方法。有几种测量方法，它们会导致不同的实验设置和测量数据。传感器可用于实验室条件、群养猪的研究以及农场使用。这些方法大多会记录采食次数。然而，这些采食次数往往会聚集成餐。因此，第三步是选择用于分析的摄食行为单位。根据具体情况，餐、采食次数、其他原始数据或它们的组合都可能适用。餐更适合分析短期摄食行为，但对于疾病检测可能并非如此。因此需要进一步研究。为了将采食次数聚类成餐，必须选择一种合适的分析方法。本文的最后一部分对现有的餐确定方法进行了综述和讨论。存在多种方法，最新的方法基于饱腹感对摄食的影响。因此，有必要对最新方法进行更全面的验证，包括从行为角度进行验证以及所应用方法的一致性验证。
