Visit to Swiss Research Centre for Proper Housing: Poultry and Rabbits (ZTHZ)- Characterising individual consistency in poultry behaviour
Lead Research Organisation:
Newcastle University
Department Name: Institute of Neuroscience
Abstract
Switzerland
People |
ORCID iD |
| Lucy Asher (Principal Investigator) |
Publications
Rufener C
(2018)
Finding hens in a haystack: Consistency of movement patterns within and across individual laying hens maintained in large groups.
in Scientific reports
Rufener C
(2019)
Keel bone fractures are associated with individual mobility of laying hens in an aviary system
in Applied Animal Behaviour Science
| Description | I was able to support analysis of individual patterns in laying hen behaviour. This lead to the discovery of highly conserved and distinct patterns of behaviour in laying hens. These patterns or changes from regular patterns are likely to be useful indicators of welfare and could be used for selection and breeding purposes. We have a follow up grant to explore this issue further. |
| Exploitation Route | Individual patterns could be used for automated health and welfare monitoring within precision livestock farming. Individual patterns could also be used for selection and breeding purposes of poultry. |
| Sectors | Agriculture Food and Drink Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software) |
| Description | Exploring the proximate factors affecting movement and location patterns and their relation to health and welfare in poultry |
| Amount | SFr. 644,535 (CHF) |
| Organisation | Swiss National Science Foundation |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | Switzerland |
| Start | 03/2020 |
| End | 03/2024 |
| Description | FSVO Swiss Federal centre of excellence in the fields of foods..: Evaluating novel methods to evaluate poultry and rabbit housing, welfare and compliance of functional areas using modern, smart farming technology |
| Amount | SFr. 162,852 (CHF) |
| Organisation | Government of Sweden |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | Sweden |
| Start | 02/2019 |
| End | 02/2021 |
| Description | Auto-detection of distress vocalisations in laying hens |
| Organisation | FAI Farms Ltd |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Private |
| PI Contribution | Explore the scope for detection of distress vocalisations in laying hens throughdjidoi: (1) Collection of audio data using research-grade microphones in four commercial egg production units at three ages of poultry life. (2) Application of existing algorithms for recognising distress vocalisations to recordings from (1). (3) Modification of existing algorithms for recognising distress calls in broilers to commercial laying hens. (4) Conducting scoping work to identify methods and feasibility of collecting and pre-processing of audio data integrated into the bird box hen mangement system |
| Collaborator Contribution | LAKES EGGS:Access to free range farms for collection of vocalisations ? Access to data collected from farms ; ? Provision of prototype bird boxes on farms which collect ; environmental, weight, feed and water data ? Staff time to help set up data collection on farm and for collaborative meetings; ? Total cost of in-kind contribition: £8750 FAI FARMS: Complete scoping project to assess feasibility and options for integrating vocalisation monitoring into bird box system; ? Access to data collected through prototype bird box hen management system (a collaborative enterprise with Lakes Eggs); ? Staff time for collaborative meetings, data extraction from bird box system and setting up secure data sharing systems for bird box data; ? Access to key figures from producer surveys to guide future application plans ? Total cost of in-kind contribition: £6600 |
| Impact | In this Seeding Catalyst Project we identified the key acoustic attributes required to automatically detect five call types related to different emotional and/or behavioural states in laying hens. Initially we had considered using methods we had already established already for broilers as part of BB/N010361/1, but new techniques were needed because of differences between the calls of broilers and layers. Calls were recorded from two commercial laying hen farms and annotated for different call types. The ability of five machine learning approaches to distinguish call types from one another and from background noise were compared. The Random Forest approach was the best performing with 77% accuracy in detecting five specific call types in laying hens. In addition, during this project we explored the feasibility of incorporating acoustic sensors into new or existing automated monitoring systems, and the potential market for acoustic sensors within the poultry industry. The project forms the basis of a feasibility study for the application of acoustic monitoring for laying hen health and welfare monitoring applications. To further develop this area of research, we have written proposals with the partners of this grant, Lakes Eggs and FAI, for the forthcoming ISCF call and the BBSRC LINK funding. |
| Start Year | 2017 |
| Description | Auto-detection of distress vocalisations in laying hens |
| Organisation | The Lakes Free Range Egg Co |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Explore the scope for detection of distress vocalisations in laying hens throughdjidoi: (1) Collection of audio data using research-grade microphones in four commercial egg production units at three ages of poultry life. (2) Application of existing algorithms for recognising distress vocalisations to recordings from (1). (3) Modification of existing algorithms for recognising distress calls in broilers to commercial laying hens. (4) Conducting scoping work to identify methods and feasibility of collecting and pre-processing of audio data integrated into the bird box hen mangement system |
| Collaborator Contribution | LAKES EGGS:Access to free range farms for collection of vocalisations ? Access to data collected from farms ; ? Provision of prototype bird boxes on farms which collect ; environmental, weight, feed and water data ? Staff time to help set up data collection on farm and for collaborative meetings; ? Total cost of in-kind contribition: £8750 FAI FARMS: Complete scoping project to assess feasibility and options for integrating vocalisation monitoring into bird box system; ? Access to data collected through prototype bird box hen management system (a collaborative enterprise with Lakes Eggs); ? Staff time for collaborative meetings, data extraction from bird box system and setting up secure data sharing systems for bird box data; ? Access to key figures from producer surveys to guide future application plans ? Total cost of in-kind contribition: £6600 |
| Impact | In this Seeding Catalyst Project we identified the key acoustic attributes required to automatically detect five call types related to different emotional and/or behavioural states in laying hens. Initially we had considered using methods we had already established already for broilers as part of BB/N010361/1, but new techniques were needed because of differences between the calls of broilers and layers. Calls were recorded from two commercial laying hen farms and annotated for different call types. The ability of five machine learning approaches to distinguish call types from one another and from background noise were compared. The Random Forest approach was the best performing with 77% accuracy in detecting five specific call types in laying hens. In addition, during this project we explored the feasibility of incorporating acoustic sensors into new or existing automated monitoring systems, and the potential market for acoustic sensors within the poultry industry. The project forms the basis of a feasibility study for the application of acoustic monitoring for laying hen health and welfare monitoring applications. To further develop this area of research, we have written proposals with the partners of this grant, Lakes Eggs and FAI, for the forthcoming ISCF call and the BBSRC LINK funding. |
| Start Year | 2017 |
| Description | Invited talk at Linkoping University on Behaviour Informatics for Animal Welfare |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Presentation to famous Ethology and Welfare group at Linkoping Univeristy Sweden |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| Description | TALK at UFAW conference What can behaviour informatics of sensor data offers animal welfare? |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Talk at International UFAW conference. https://www.ufaw.org.uk/downloads/ufaw-symposium-bruges-july-2019---timetable.pdf |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Talk on entropy in chickens Bern workshop |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | Workshop in Bern Switzerland to discuss individual approaches to chicken behaviour. Attended by biggest free range producer from USA, Academics from across Europe, Policy makers from Switzerland, largest European producer of poultry housing and equipment, one of largest chicken genetics company in the world. Requests for further collabortaion with industry and academics, plans to submit ITN European proposal as a consortium. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |