Charlton Gemma, Gauld Carrie, Veronesi Fabio, Rutter Steven Mark, Bleach Emma
Animal Health, Behaviour and Welfare Department, Harper Adams University, Newport TF10 8NB, UK.
Farm Department, Harper Adams University, Newport TF10 8NB, UK.
Animals (Basel). 2022 Mar 3;12(5):638. doi: 10.3390/ani12050638.
The accuracy of CowAlert IceQube sensors (IceRobotics Ltd., Edinburgh, UK) for recording lying duration, standing and lying transitions and number of steps when dairy cows where at pasture, in cubicle housing and in a straw yard, was investigated. Holstein Friesian cows at Harper Adams University, UK were fitted with IceQube sensors; one on the back left (BL) leg and one on the front left (FL) leg. Cows at pasture ( = 48), in cubicle housing ( = 46) and in a straw yard ( = 45) were visually observed. Data were analysed in two stages: (1) an initial exploratory phase determined the correlation level between sensor measurements andvisual observations. Subsequently, (2) a mixed effects modelling framework was used to check whether sensors provide significantly different measures of cow's activities compared to the observations. Results indicate that lying and standing times are similar between the observed and recorded times, in all three locations. In terms of sensor placement, significant differences were found between the number of steps recorded between BL and FL on straw and pasture, but all other activities were similar, in each location. The accuracy of CowAlert IceQube sensors on the BL leg gives them the potential to be used as lifelong sensors.
研究了CowAlert IceQube传感器（英国爱丁堡IceRobotics有限公司）在奶牛处于牧场、牛舍和干草场时记录躺卧时长、站立和躺卧转换以及步数的准确性。英国哈珀亚当斯大学的荷斯坦弗里生奶牛佩戴了IceQube传感器，一个安装在左后腿（BL），另一个安装在左前腿（FL）。对处于牧场（n = 48）、牛舍（n = 46）和干草场（n = 45）的奶牛进行了目视观察。数据分两个阶段进行分析：（1）初始探索阶段确定传感器测量值与目视观察之间的相关水平。随后，（2）使用混合效应建模框架来检查与观察结果相比，传感器提供的奶牛活动测量值是否存在显著差异。结果表明，在所有三个地点，观察到的和记录到的躺卧和站立时间相似。在传感器放置方面，发现干草场和牧场中BL和FL记录的步数存在显著差异，但在每个地点，所有其他活动都相似。安装在BL腿上的CowAlert IceQube传感器的准确性使其有潜力用作终身传感器。
