PigWatch: early automated detection of tail biting and aggression

Despite decades of intensive research, aggression and tail biting in pigs still persist on many farms. Remedialmeasures are dependent on early diagnosis of these injurious behaviours. The European PigWatch Project (https://pigwatch.net, Anihwa ERA-Net) aims to sensitize stock persons to early behavioural signs of pigs. It also develops 3 automated techniques to record injurious behaviours. To start we developed and tested an on-farm observation protocol for animal handlers, requiring them to observe their pigs differently. Farmers in the 5 participating countries of the project confirmed that the position of the tail (hanging or curled) is a good early indicator. For some the use of the protocol changed the way they look at their animals. Pigwatch also develops technological solutions. A first study focused on increased behavioural activity as a sign of ongoing aggressive acts. A sensor will send an alarm to an app when activity is conspicuous. The first prototype detects 42% of fights, with 62% true positives. Its sensitivity and specificity is still being improved. In a second study, a multispectrum camera was developed to detect blood (Hb) through the use of LEDs emitting 6 different wavelengths, of which the reflection is caught on separate digital photos. The principle was tested with success on fresh and old blood and compared with red ink. It is now applied on group housed pigs. Finally, in a third study, tail length and lesions are automatically detected by camera in-line at the abattoir. The system was used on pigs from 225 herds (250+ carcasses / batch). It can generate a report per herd on the number of pigs, the prevalence of tail lesions and the fraction of short and very short tails.