Marini Danila, Meuleman M Dennis, Belson Sue, Rodenburg T Bas, Llewellyn Rick, Lee Caroline
School of Environmental and Rural Science, University of New England, Armidale, NSW 2350, Australia.
Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, Agriculture and Food, Locked Bag 1, Armidale NSW 2350, Australia.
Animals (Basel). 2018 Feb 27;8(3):33. doi: 10.3390/ani8030033.
To ensure animal welfare isn't compromised when using virtual fencing, animals must be able to associate a benign conditioned stimulus with an aversive stimulus. This study used an associative learning test to train 30, four-year-old, Merino x Suffolk ewes, to associate an audio cue with an electric stimulus. Collars manually controlled by a GPS hand-held unit were used to deliver the audio and electric stimuli cues. For the associative learning, when sheep approached an attractant at a distance of three m from the trough, an audio cue was applied for one s. If the sheep stopped or changed direction, the audio cue ceased immediately and no electrical stimulus was applied. If the sheep did not respond to the audio cue it was followed by a low-level electrical stimulus. Approaches to the attractant significantly decreased from day one to day two. It took a mean of three pairings of the audio cue and electrical stimulus for a change in behaviour to occur, after which sheep that approached the attractant had a 52% probability of avoiding the electrical stimulus and responding to the audio cue alone. Further research is required to determine whether sheep can be trained to associate an audio cue with a negative stimulus for use in group grazing situations.
为确保在使用虚拟围栏时动物福利不受损害，动物必须能够将良性条件刺激与厌恶刺激联系起来。本研究使用关联学习测试来训练30只四岁的美利奴×萨福克母羊，使其将音频提示与电刺激联系起来。由GPS手持设备手动控制的项圈用于传递音频和电刺激提示。对于关联学习，当绵羊在距离食槽3米处接近引诱物时，施加音频提示1秒。如果绵羊停下或改变方向，音频提示立即停止，且不施加电刺激。如果绵羊对音频提示没有反应，随后会施加低强度电刺激。从第一天到第二天，接近引诱物的次数显著减少。平均需要音频提示和电刺激配对三次才会出现行为变化，此后接近引诱物的绵羊有52%的概率避免电刺激并仅对音频提示做出反应。需要进一步研究以确定是否可以训练绵羊将音频提示与负面刺激联系起来，用于群体放牧情况。
