Co-occurrence of sudden feeding behaviour deviations and welfare issue onsets in growing-finishing pigs.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Modern sensor technologies and algorithms have the potential to continuously monitor indicators of individual animal welfare, but in growing-finishing pigs the validity of such welfare monitoring remains low for unclear reasons. This study explored how sudden deviations in individual pig feeding behaviour, detected as alerts by a dynamic linear model with Kalman filter, relate to the onset of welfare issues.

Results

Alerts frequencies varied across feeding behaviour components, with higher occurrences for feed intake, feeding duration, feeding rate and night intake (approximately 14.5% of days with an alert) than for feeding frequency and circadian rhythm strength (approximately 7.7% of days with an alert). Limited temporal overlap was observed between feeding com

SUBMITTER: Bus JD 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12333252 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature