Abstract
Simple SummaryCannibalism is one of the biggest welfare issues of today’s turkey husbandry. We hypothesized that changes in pecking activity might indicate imminent cannibalism. Therefore, in this pilot study a newly developed automatic pecking activity detection was validated, and continuously applied to gain information about pecking activity of group-housed turkeys during the rearing phase and before a cannibalistic outbreak. The pecking object was used by turkeys the whole recording time. Activity on the object was highest in the morning. No clear trend in pecking activity development before an outbreak has yet been found. Pecking detection has to be further tested under various farm conditions. The system can be used in further research in order to survey changes in pecking activity in turkeys.In search for an early warning system for cannibalism, in this study a newly developed automatic pecking activity detection system was validated and used to investigate how pecking activity changes over the rearing phase and before cannibalistic outbreaks. Data were recorded on two farms, one with female (intact beaks) and the other with male (trimmed beaks) turkeys. A metallic pecking object that was equipped with a microphone was installed in the barn and video monitored. Pecking activity was continuously recorded and fed into a CNN (Convolutional neural network) model that automatically detected pecks. The CNN was validated on both farms, and very satisfactory detection performances were reached (mean sensitivity/recall, specificity, accuracy, precision, and F1-score around 90% or higher). The extent of pecking at the object differed between farms, but the objects were used during the whole recording time, with highest activities in the morning hours. Daily pecking frequencies showed a low downward trend over the rearing period, although on both farms they increased again in week 5 of life. No clear associations between pecking frequencies and in total three cannibalistic outbreaks on farm 1 in one batch could be found. The detection system is usable for further research, but it should be further automated. It should also be further tested under various farm conditions.
Highlights
Poultry meat production increased between 1961 and 2017 from nine to 122 million tons due to increasing demand [1]
The objective of this work was to test a newly developed automatic detection system for pecking activity of turkeys based on audio data analysis [32] under near-commercial conditions
A newly developed pecking detection system that was based on a convolutional neural network (CNN) model was successfully validated and tested on two turkey farms
Summary
Poultry meat production increased between 1961 and 2017 from nine to 122 million tons due to increasing demand [1]. Cannibalism can spread rapidly throughout the herd [6] and it often results in the death of the affected animals [6,7]. It is a major economic problem for poultry farmers [8] and it can occur at any time, both during rearing and fattening. As a preventive intervention beak trimming is generally used It does not remedy the cause, but only minimizes resulting injuries. A considerable proportion of activity accounts for beak related behavior (45% in week 2 to 28% in week 11 of life), which consists of feeding, drinking, preening, and environmental and bird pecking [18]. Cloutier et al [20] (for laying hens) and Busayi et al [21]
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
