Abstract
In the last decades, there has been an increasing interest in animal protection and welfare issues. Heart rate variability (HRV) measurement with portable heart rate monitors on cows has established itself as a suitable method for assessing physiological states. However, more forward-looking technologies, already successfully applied to evaluate HRV data, are pushing the market. This study examines the validity and usability of collecting HRV data by exchanging the Polar watch V800 as a receiving unit of the data compared to a custom smartphone application on cows. Therefore, both receivers tap one signal sent by the Polar H7 transmitter simultaneously. Furthermore, there is a lack of suitable methods for the preparation and calculation of HRV parameters, especially for livestock. A method is presented for calculating more robust time domain HRV parameters via median formation. The comparisons of the respective simultaneous recordings were conducted after artifact correction for time domain HRV parameters. High correlations (r = 0.82–0.98) for cows as well as for control data set in human being (r = 0.98–0.99) were found. The utilization of smart devices and the robust method to determine time domain HRV parameters may be suitable to generate valid HRV data on cows in field-based settings.
Highlights
The welfare and health status of dairy cows is more and more a matter of particular interest, for consumers, and for dairy farmers, farm advisers and veterinarians
For high-yielding dairy cows, the reduction of stress and monitoring of their welfare status is relevant for their health and performance, as dairy cows are highly sensitive to environmental factors [3]
This study focuses on the time domain parameters mean IBI’s (RR intervals), the standard deviation of IBI (SDNN), which shows the activity of the vegetative nervous system and the root mean square of successive differences as an indicator for the parasympathetic nervous system and a marker for relaxation
Summary
The welfare and health status of dairy cows is more and more a matter of particular interest, for consumers, and for dairy farmers, farm advisers and veterinarians. Welfare means the state of physical and mental harmony as well as the possibility of natural behavior in their environment [2]. For high-yielding dairy cows, the reduction of stress and monitoring of their welfare status is relevant for their health and performance, as dairy cows are highly sensitive to environmental factors [3]. A reduced welfare and health status means depression in performance. The potential of dairy cows has not been fully exploited. This in turn causes economic harm to the farmer [4]. One focus of research is to recognize, solve and prevent problems in the welfare of livestock [5]
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