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Development of a Machine Vision Method for the Monitoring of Laying Hens and Detection of Multiple Nest Occupations
Free range systems can improve the welfare of laying hens. However, the access to environmental resources can be partially limited by social interactions, feeding of hens, and productivity, can be not stable and damaging behaviors, or negative events, can be observed more frequently than in conventi...
Autores principales: | , , , , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
MDPI
2018
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5796280/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29303981 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/s18010132 |
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author | Zaninelli, Mauro Redaelli, Veronica Luzi, Fabio Mitchell, Malcolm Bontempo, Valentino Cattaneo, Donata Dell’Orto, Vittorio Savoini, Giovanni |
author_facet | Zaninelli, Mauro Redaelli, Veronica Luzi, Fabio Mitchell, Malcolm Bontempo, Valentino Cattaneo, Donata Dell’Orto, Vittorio Savoini, Giovanni |
author_sort | Zaninelli, Mauro |
collection | PubMed |
description | Free range systems can improve the welfare of laying hens. However, the access to environmental resources can be partially limited by social interactions, feeding of hens, and productivity, can be not stable and damaging behaviors, or negative events, can be observed more frequently than in conventional housing systems. In order to reach a real improvement of the hens’ welfare the study of their laying performances and behaviors is necessary. With this purpose, many systems have been developed. However, most of them do not detect a multiple occupation of the nest negatively affecting the accuracy of data collected. To overcome this issue, a new “nest-usage-sensor” was developed and tested. It was based on the evaluation of thermografic images, as acquired by a thermo-camera, and the performing of patter recognitions on images acquired from the nest interior. The sensor was setup with a “Multiple Nest Occupation Threshold” of 796 colored pixels and a template of triangular shape and sizes of 43 × 33 pixels (high per base). It was tested through an experimental nesting system where 10 hens were reared for a month. Results showed that the evaluation of thermografic images could increase the detection performance of a multiple occupation of the nest and to apply an image pattern recognition technique could allow for counting the number of hens in the nest in case of a multiple occupation. As a consequence, the accuracy of data collected in studies on laying performances and behaviors of hens, reared in a free-range housing system, could result to be improved. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-5796280 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2018 |
publisher | MDPI |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-57962802018-02-13 Development of a Machine Vision Method for the Monitoring of Laying Hens and Detection of Multiple Nest Occupations Zaninelli, Mauro Redaelli, Veronica Luzi, Fabio Mitchell, Malcolm Bontempo, Valentino Cattaneo, Donata Dell’Orto, Vittorio Savoini, Giovanni Sensors (Basel) Article Free range systems can improve the welfare of laying hens. However, the access to environmental resources can be partially limited by social interactions, feeding of hens, and productivity, can be not stable and damaging behaviors, or negative events, can be observed more frequently than in conventional housing systems. In order to reach a real improvement of the hens’ welfare the study of their laying performances and behaviors is necessary. With this purpose, many systems have been developed. However, most of them do not detect a multiple occupation of the nest negatively affecting the accuracy of data collected. To overcome this issue, a new “nest-usage-sensor” was developed and tested. It was based on the evaluation of thermografic images, as acquired by a thermo-camera, and the performing of patter recognitions on images acquired from the nest interior. The sensor was setup with a “Multiple Nest Occupation Threshold” of 796 colored pixels and a template of triangular shape and sizes of 43 × 33 pixels (high per base). It was tested through an experimental nesting system where 10 hens were reared for a month. Results showed that the evaluation of thermografic images could increase the detection performance of a multiple occupation of the nest and to apply an image pattern recognition technique could allow for counting the number of hens in the nest in case of a multiple occupation. As a consequence, the accuracy of data collected in studies on laying performances and behaviors of hens, reared in a free-range housing system, could result to be improved. MDPI 2018-01-05 /pmc/articles/PMC5796280/ /pubmed/29303981 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/s18010132 Text en © 2018 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). |
spellingShingle | Article Zaninelli, Mauro Redaelli, Veronica Luzi, Fabio Mitchell, Malcolm Bontempo, Valentino Cattaneo, Donata Dell’Orto, Vittorio Savoini, Giovanni Development of a Machine Vision Method for the Monitoring of Laying Hens and Detection of Multiple Nest Occupations |
title | Development of a Machine Vision Method for the Monitoring of Laying Hens and Detection of Multiple Nest Occupations |
title_full | Development of a Machine Vision Method for the Monitoring of Laying Hens and Detection of Multiple Nest Occupations |
title_fullStr | Development of a Machine Vision Method for the Monitoring of Laying Hens and Detection of Multiple Nest Occupations |
title_full_unstemmed | Development of a Machine Vision Method for the Monitoring of Laying Hens and Detection of Multiple Nest Occupations |
title_short | Development of a Machine Vision Method for the Monitoring of Laying Hens and Detection of Multiple Nest Occupations |
title_sort | development of a machine vision method for the monitoring of laying hens and detection of multiple nest occupations |
topic | Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5796280/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29303981 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/s18010132 |
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