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Footpad Monitoring: Reliability of an Automated System to Assess Footpad Dermatitis in Turkeys (Meleagris gallopavo) During Slaughter

Footpad dermatitis (FPD) is an indicator of animal welfare in turkeys, giving evidence of the animals' physical integrity and providing information on husbandry management. Automated systems for assessing FPD at slaughter can present a useful tool for objective data collection. However, using a...

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Autores principales: Stracke, Jenny, Andersson, Robby, Volkmann, Nina, Spindler, Birgit, Schulte-Landwehr, Jan, Günther, Ronald, Kemper, Nicole
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9157434/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35664852
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fvets.2022.888503
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author Stracke, Jenny
Andersson, Robby
Volkmann, Nina
Spindler, Birgit
Schulte-Landwehr, Jan
Günther, Ronald
Kemper, Nicole
author_facet Stracke, Jenny
Andersson, Robby
Volkmann, Nina
Spindler, Birgit
Schulte-Landwehr, Jan
Günther, Ronald
Kemper, Nicole
author_sort Stracke, Jenny
collection PubMed
description Footpad dermatitis (FPD) is an indicator of animal welfare in turkeys, giving evidence of the animals' physical integrity and providing information on husbandry management. Automated systems for assessing FPD at slaughter can present a useful tool for objective data collection. However, using automated systems requires that they reliably assess the incidence. In this study, the feet of turkeys were scored for FPD by both an automated camera system and a human observer, using a five-scale score. The observer reliability between both was calculated (Krippendorff's alpha). The results were not acceptable, with an agreement coefficient of 0.44 in the initial situation. Therefore, pictures of 3,000 feet scored by the automated system were evaluated systematically to detect deficiencies. The reference area (metatarsal footpad) was not detected correctly in 55.0% of the feet, and false detections of the alteration on the footpad (FPD) were found in 32.9% of the feet. In 41.3% of the feet, the foot was not presented straight to the camera. According to these results, the algorithm of the automated system was modified, aiming to improve color detection and the distinction of the metatarsal footpad from the background. Pictures of the feet, now scored by the modified algorithm, were evaluated again. Observer reliability could be improved (Krippendorff's alpha = 0.61). However, detection of the metatarsal footpad (50.9% incorrect detections) and alterations (27.0% incorrect detections) remained a problem. We found that the performance of the camera system was affected by the angle at which the foot was presented to the camera (skew/straight; p < 0.05). Furthermore, the laterality of the foot (left/right) was found to have a significant effect (p < 0.001). We propose that the latter depends on the slaughter process. This study also highlights a high variability in observer reliability of human observers. Depending on the respective target parameter, the reliability coefficient (Krippendorff's alpha) ranged from 0.21 to 0.82. This stresses the importance of finding an objective alternative. Therefore, it was concluded that the automated detection system could be appropriate to reliably assess FPD at the slaughterhouse. However, there is still room to improve the existing method, especially when using FPD as a welfare indicator.
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spelling pubmed-91574342022-06-02 Footpad Monitoring: Reliability of an Automated System to Assess Footpad Dermatitis in Turkeys (Meleagris gallopavo) During Slaughter Stracke, Jenny Andersson, Robby Volkmann, Nina Spindler, Birgit Schulte-Landwehr, Jan Günther, Ronald Kemper, Nicole Front Vet Sci Veterinary Science Footpad dermatitis (FPD) is an indicator of animal welfare in turkeys, giving evidence of the animals' physical integrity and providing information on husbandry management. Automated systems for assessing FPD at slaughter can present a useful tool for objective data collection. However, using automated systems requires that they reliably assess the incidence. In this study, the feet of turkeys were scored for FPD by both an automated camera system and a human observer, using a five-scale score. The observer reliability between both was calculated (Krippendorff's alpha). The results were not acceptable, with an agreement coefficient of 0.44 in the initial situation. Therefore, pictures of 3,000 feet scored by the automated system were evaluated systematically to detect deficiencies. The reference area (metatarsal footpad) was not detected correctly in 55.0% of the feet, and false detections of the alteration on the footpad (FPD) were found in 32.9% of the feet. In 41.3% of the feet, the foot was not presented straight to the camera. According to these results, the algorithm of the automated system was modified, aiming to improve color detection and the distinction of the metatarsal footpad from the background. Pictures of the feet, now scored by the modified algorithm, were evaluated again. Observer reliability could be improved (Krippendorff's alpha = 0.61). However, detection of the metatarsal footpad (50.9% incorrect detections) and alterations (27.0% incorrect detections) remained a problem. We found that the performance of the camera system was affected by the angle at which the foot was presented to the camera (skew/straight; p < 0.05). Furthermore, the laterality of the foot (left/right) was found to have a significant effect (p < 0.001). We propose that the latter depends on the slaughter process. This study also highlights a high variability in observer reliability of human observers. Depending on the respective target parameter, the reliability coefficient (Krippendorff's alpha) ranged from 0.21 to 0.82. This stresses the importance of finding an objective alternative. Therefore, it was concluded that the automated detection system could be appropriate to reliably assess FPD at the slaughterhouse. However, there is still room to improve the existing method, especially when using FPD as a welfare indicator. Frontiers Media S.A. 2022-05-17 /pmc/articles/PMC9157434/ /pubmed/35664852 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fvets.2022.888503 Text en Copyright © 2022 Stracke, Andersson, Volkmann, Spindler, Schulte-Landwehr, Günther and Kemper. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Veterinary Science
Stracke, Jenny
Andersson, Robby
Volkmann, Nina
Spindler, Birgit
Schulte-Landwehr, Jan
Günther, Ronald
Kemper, Nicole
Footpad Monitoring: Reliability of an Automated System to Assess Footpad Dermatitis in Turkeys (Meleagris gallopavo) During Slaughter
title Footpad Monitoring: Reliability of an Automated System to Assess Footpad Dermatitis in Turkeys (Meleagris gallopavo) During Slaughter
title_full Footpad Monitoring: Reliability of an Automated System to Assess Footpad Dermatitis in Turkeys (Meleagris gallopavo) During Slaughter
title_fullStr Footpad Monitoring: Reliability of an Automated System to Assess Footpad Dermatitis in Turkeys (Meleagris gallopavo) During Slaughter
title_full_unstemmed Footpad Monitoring: Reliability of an Automated System to Assess Footpad Dermatitis in Turkeys (Meleagris gallopavo) During Slaughter
title_short Footpad Monitoring: Reliability of an Automated System to Assess Footpad Dermatitis in Turkeys (Meleagris gallopavo) During Slaughter
title_sort footpad monitoring: reliability of an automated system to assess footpad dermatitis in turkeys (meleagris gallopavo) during slaughter
topic Veterinary Science
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9157434/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35664852
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fvets.2022.888503
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