Muir Stephanie K, Linden Nick P, Kennedy Andrew, Calder Grace, Kearney Gavin, Roberts Richard, Knight Matthew I, Behrendt Ralph
Agriculture Victoria Research, Department of Jobs, Precincts and Regions, Hamilton, Victoria, Australia.
Biosecurity and Agriculture Services, Department of Jobs, Precints and Regions, Rutherglen, Victoria, Australia.
Transl Anim Sci. 2020 Jan 17;4(2):txaa007. doi: 10.1093/tas/txaa007. eCollection 2020 Apr.
The development of feeding systems that can individually measure and control feed intake in a group-housed environment would allow a greater understanding of sheep intake without compromising animal welfare and behavior through the removal of social interactions between sheep. This study validated an automated feeding system for measuring feed intake of individual sheep when housed in groups. Validation of the feeding system was conducted during three separate experiments. The validation sampling involved the activation of four individual "feed events," whereby four separate samples weighing approximately 50, 100, 200, and 400 g were removed from each feeder, with each feed event being linked to a specific radio frequency identification (RFID) tag. The feeder validation experiments evaluated the ability of the feeding system to 1) create a unique feed event every time a sample of pellets was collected from the feeder, 2) link the feed event to the correct RFID, and 3) accurately record the weight of feed that was manually removed. All feed events were initiated and logged in the feeding system with 100% of the events being linked to the correct test RFID. Concordance correlation coefficients between the feeding system-recorded feed weight and the manually removed weight were 0.99 within all three experiments. There was also no overall and little level-dependent bias between the weights measured by the feeding system and weights measured on the external scales. These results indicate the stability of the feeding system over time and consistency between the feeders within and across the three experiments. In conclusion, the automated feeding system developed for measuring individual animal feed intake was able to detect and record the unique electronic RFID associated with unique feed events and accurately capture the weight of feed removed. Furthermore, there was no change in the accuracy of the system from the start to the end of experimental periods, and the amount of feed removed in the feed event (or meal size) did not impact the accuracy of the results.
开发一种能够在群体饲养环境中单独测量和控制采食量的饲喂系统，将有助于在不通过消除绵羊之间的社交互动而损害动物福利和行为的情况下，更深入地了解绵羊的采食量。本研究验证了一种用于测量群体饲养的个体绵羊采食量的自动饲喂系统。在三个独立的实验中对该饲喂系统进行了验证。验证采样包括激活四个单独的“采食事件”，即从每个饲喂器中取出四个单独的样本，重量分别约为50克、100克、200克和400克，每个采食事件都与一个特定的射频识别（RFID）标签相关联。饲喂器验证实验评估了该饲喂系统的以下能力：1）每次从饲喂器中采集颗粒样本时创建一个独特的采食事件；2）将采食事件与正确的RFID关联；3）准确记录手动取出的饲料重量。所有采食事件均在饲喂系统中启动并记录，100%的事件与正确的测试RFID相关联。在所有三个实验中，饲喂系统记录的饲料重量与手动取出的重量之间的一致性相关系数均为0.99。饲喂系统测量的重量与外部秤测量的重量之间也没有总体偏差，且几乎没有水平依赖性偏差。这些结果表明该饲喂系统随时间的稳定性以及三个实验内部和之间饲喂器之间的一致性。总之，为测量个体动物采食量而开发的自动饲喂系统能够检测并记录与独特采食事件相关的独特电子RFID，并准确获取取出饲料的重量。此外，从实验期开始到结束，系统的准确性没有变化，采食事件中取出的饲料量（即餐量）也不影响结果的准确性。
