Kapun Anita, Adrion Felix, Gallmann Eva
Institute of Agricultural Engineering, University of Hohenheim, Garbenstraße 9, 70599 Stuttgart, Germany.
Animals (Basel). 2023 Oct 6;13(19):3112. doi: 10.3390/ani13193112.
Monitoring the activity of animals can help with assessing their health status. We monitored the walking activity of fattening pigs using a UHF-RFID system. Four hundred fattening pigs with UHF-RFID ear tags were recorded by RFID antennas at the troughs, playing devices and drinkers during the fattening period. A minimum walking distance, or virtual walking distance, was determined for each pig per day by calculating the distances between two consecutive reading areas. This automatically calculated value was used as an activity measure and not only showed differences between the pigs but also between different fattening stages. The longer the fattening periods lasted, the less walking activity was detected. The virtual walking distance ranged between 281 m on average in the first fattening stage and about 141 m in the last fattening stage in a restricted environment. The findings are similar to other studies considering walking distances of fattening pigs, but are far less labor-intensive and time-consuming than direct observations.
监测动物的活动有助于评估它们的健康状况。我们使用超高频射频识别（UHF-RFID）系统监测育肥猪的行走活动。在育肥期，通过安装在食槽、游乐设施和饮水器处的RFID天线，对400头佩戴UHF-RFID耳标的育肥猪进行记录。通过计算两个连续读取区域之间的距离，为每头猪每天确定一个最小行走距离，即虚拟行走距离。这个自动计算出的值被用作活动量度，它不仅显示了猪之间的差异，还显示了不同育肥阶段之间的差异。育肥期持续的时间越长，检测到的行走活动就越少。在受限环境中，虚拟行走距离在第一个育肥阶段平均为281米，在最后一个育肥阶段约为141米。这些发现与其他关于育肥猪行走距离的研究相似，但比直接观察的劳动强度小得多，也更省时。
