1KU Leuven Department of Biosystems,MeBioS,Kasteelpark Arenberg 30,3001 Leuven,Belgium.
3Animal Sciences Unit,Institute for Agricultural and Fisheries Research (ILVO),Scheldeweg 68,9090 Melle,Belgium.
Animal. 2016 Sep;10(9):1557-66. doi: 10.1017/S1751731115000774. Epub 2015 May 11.
Changes in the drinking behaviour of pigs may indicate health, welfare or productivity problems. Automated monitoring and analysis of drinking behaviour could allow problems to be detected, thus improving farm productivity. A high frequency radio frequency identification (HF RFID) system was designed to register the drinking behaviour of individual pigs. HF RFID antennas were placed around four nipple drinkers and connected to a reader via a multiplexer. A total of 55 growing-finishing pigs were fitted with radio frequency identification (RFID) ear tags, one in each ear. RFID-based drinking visits were created from the RFID registrations using a bout criterion and a minimum and maximum duration criterion. The HF RFID system was successfully validated by comparing RFID-based visits with visual observations and flow meter measurements based on visit overlap. Sensitivity was at least 92%, specificity 93%, precision 90% and accuracy 93%. RFID-based drinking duration had a high correlation with observed drinking duration (R 2=0.88) and water usage (R 2=0.71). The number of registrations after applying the visit criteria had an even higher correlation with the same two variables (R 2=0.90 and 0.75, respectively). There was also a correlation between number of RFID visits and number of observed visits (R 2=0.84). The system provides good quality information about the drinking behaviour of individual pigs. As health or other problems affect the pigs' drinking behaviour, analysis of the RFID data could allow problems to be detected and signalled to the farmer. This information can help to improve the productivity and economics of the farm as well as the health and welfare of the pigs.
猪的饮水行为的变化可能表明存在健康、福利或生产效率问题。自动监测和分析饮水行为可以帮助发现问题，从而提高农场的生产效率。本研究设计了一种高频射频识别（HF RFID）系统来记录单个猪的饮水行为。HF RFID 天线安装在四个乳头饮水器周围，并通过多路复用器连接到读取器。总共为 55 头育肥猪佩戴了射频识别（RFID）耳标，每只耳朵一个。使用回合标准和最小和最大持续时间标准，从 RFID 注册中创建基于 RFID 的饮水访问。通过基于访问重叠的视觉观察和流量计测量来验证 HF RFID 系统的有效性。敏感性至少为 92%，特异性为 93%，精度为 90%，准确性为 93%。基于 RFID 的饮水持续时间与观察到的饮水持续时间（R 2=0.88）和用水量（R 2=0.71）具有高度相关性。应用访问标准后的注册数量与上述两个变量的相关性更高（R 2=0.90 和 0.75）。RFID 访问次数与观察到的访问次数之间也存在相关性（R 2=0.84）。该系统提供了有关单个猪饮水行为的高质量信息。由于健康或其他问题会影响猪的饮水行为，因此对 RFID 数据的分析可以帮助发现问题，并向农民发出信号。该信息有助于提高农场的生产力和经济效益，以及猪的健康和福利。
