부산대학교 도서관

This study was conducted to evaluate activity changes in pigs associated with outbreaks of tail biting using an optical flow platform. Pigs (n=240, 24.9 ± 2.9 kg, 9-wk old) were housed in 8 pens of 30 pigs on slatted floors for 16 weeks. Four pens housed pigs with tails docked and the other 4 pens housed pigs with tails intact. Pigs were assessed for tail scores (0=no injury to 4=severe injury) once weekly. Behaviors of pigs were video-recorded twice weekly. One-hour video segments during morning, noon, and afternoon of each recording day were analyzed for optical flow using the OPTICFLOCK platform which measures movements of pigs in each pen. The same video segments were scanned at 5-min intervals to estimate time budget for standing/walking, lying, eating, drinking, and tail biting. Compared with docked pigs, intact pigs had higher tail scores (0.5 ± 0.29 vs. 0.1 ± 0.01; P < 0.001) and higher optical flow (8.2 vs. 6.9; SE=0.42; P < 0.05), suggesting more tail injuries and higher activity levels. Intact pigs spent less time lying (P < 0.001) and more time eating (P < 0.01) and tail biting (P < 0.01), and tended to spend more time standing/walking (P=0.08) than docked pigs, which support the optical flow data. During outbreaks of tail biting, intact pigs had higher optical flow during the first outbreak (14.59, SE=0.73; P < 0.05) compared to before (5.44) and after (10.54) the outbreak, suggesting activity changes during the development of tail biting outbreaks. Across tail docking treatments and observation days, pigs had lower optical flow at noon (6.9, SE=0.33; P < 0.001) compared to morning (7.8) and afternoon (7.9), suggesting that pigs were less active at noon which was supported by the behavioral time budgets. These results suggest that optical flow might be a promising tool for monitoring activity changes in pigs during the development of tail biting.Key Words: