We have located links that may give you full text access.
Technical note: The use of an accelerometer for measuring step activity and lying behaviors in dairy calves.
Journal of Dairy Science 2016 November
Calf behaviors such as step activity, lying bouts, and lying time may be an indicator of calf health and welfare. To reduce time-consuming visual observations, the use of behavioral monitoring systems have been developed to capture these data. Previous studies have validated lying behaviors using an accelerometer (HPG; HOBO Pendant G data logger, Onset Computer Corp., Bourne, MA) in calves. However, the HPG does not measure step activity. The objectives of this study were to (1) validate step activity, lying bouts, and lying time of AfiTag II (AT2; AfiTag II, Afimilk Ltd., Kibbutz Afikim, Israel) to observations from video, and (2) to compare the behavioral data from AT2 to the HPG. Calves (n=5) were group housed with an automatic calf feeder. Video cameras were installed at both sides of the pen, and observations were analyzed for 7h/calf. The AT2 and the HPG were both attached to the lateral side of the right rear leg of 5 calves, and data were recorded for 10 d. The full 10-d data set was used to examine correlations for lying bouts and lying time between AT2 and the HPG. The HPG was set at a 60-s sampling interval and the output was analyzed both unfiltered as well as utilizing a 1-min event filter to remove potentially erroneous readings. The AT2 recorded step activity, lying bouts, and lying time, and summarized these behaviors in 15-min periods. The AT2 recorded lying time in 3-min intervals, which were then automatically summarized in 15-min periods. The correlations of step activity, lying bouts, and lying time between video recordings and AT2 were 0.99. For the second objective, correlations between AT2 and the HPG were 0.99 for lying time and 0.93 for lying bouts. The 1-min event filter resulted in a 0.03 improvement in correlations for lying bouts between the HPG and AT2. The high correlation between video recordings and AT2 suggest that this device can be used to measure step activity, lying time, and lying bouts in unweaned dairy calves housed in groups.
Full text links
Related Resources
Get seemless 1-tap access through your institution/university
For the best experience, use the Read mobile app
All material on this website is protected by copyright, Copyright © 1994-2024 by WebMD LLC.
This website also contains material copyrighted by 3rd parties.
By using this service, you agree to our terms of use and privacy policy.
Your Privacy Choices
You can now claim free CME credits for this literature searchClaim now
Get seemless 1-tap access through your institution/university
For the best experience, use the Read mobile app