Thomas Matthew, Occhiuto Francesca, Vázquez-Diosdado Jorge A, Kaler Jasmeet
School of Veterinary Medicine and Science, University of Nottingham, Sutton Bonington Campus, Leicestershire, LE12 5RD, UK.
Sci Rep. 2025 Jul 25;15(1):27090. doi: 10.1038/s41598-025-09983-z.
Changes in behavioural rhythms of livestock can be useful indicators of disease or stress before visible signs appear. Using precision livestock technologies, it is possible to measure behavioural patterns and compute the diurnality, determined by proportion of activity that happens during the daytime. Accounting for individual variation in behaviour due to personality or predictability differences is an essential step for the early detection of disease or stress. Here we aimed to detect individual differences and changes in daily rhythms. We use ultra-wideband location sensors to measure the diurnality of 285 calves across the weaning period and two housings. Calves were shown for the first time to have consistent individual differences in diurnality (the repeatability was 0.29 and 0.39 in each housing) and to differ in their predictability (CVp = 0.15 and CVp = 0.28 in each housing). This was the first time that a decrease in diurnality was detected when calves were experiencing disease or the stress of disbudding, as the diurnality index decreased by 0.07 and 0.45 respectively. Diurnality increased with age and decreased during weaning and in the summer months. These results highlight the importance of studying individual variation and daily rhythms of activity for the development of automated disease detection tools.
家畜行为节律的变化可能是疾病或应激在出现可见症状之前的有用指标。利用精准畜牧技术，可以测量行为模式并计算日节律性，日节律性由白天发生的活动比例决定。考虑到由于个性或可预测性差异导致的个体行为差异，是疾病或应激早期检测的关键步骤。在此，我们旨在检测个体差异和日常节律的变化。我们使用超宽带定位传感器来测量285头犊牛在断奶期和两个饲养环境中的日节律性。首次发现犊牛在日节律性方面存在一致的个体差异（每个饲养环境中的重复性分别为0.29和0.39），并且在可预测性方面也存在差异（每个饲养环境中的CVp分别为0.15和0.28）。这是首次在犊牛患病或经历去角应激时检测到日节律性下降，日节律性指数分别下降了0.07和0.45。日节律性随年龄增长而增加，在断奶期间和夏季月份下降。这些结果凸显了研究个体差异和日常活动节律对于开发自动化疾病检测工具的重要性。
