Modeling of sows diurnal activity pattern and detection of parturition using acceleration measurements

This article suggests and assesses two different monitoring methods for detecting sows parturition using series of three-dimensions acceleration measurements previously classified into activity types. Two groups of sows are monitored: a first group (n = 9) provided with straw (S), and a second group (n = 10) where no straw is provided (NS); two types of activity are taken into account: high active behaviour (corresponding to feeding, rooting and nest building behaviours) and total active behaviour (including any active activity type). The first method suggests modeling sows’ diurnal pattern of activity using a saw-tooth function for the probability of being active and monitoring the series using a Dynamic Generalized Linear Model (DGLM). The second method is based on a cumulative sum of hourly differences of activity, from day-to-day. Both methods use a threshold value, optimized for each group, to detect the onset of farrowing. Best results in terms of sensitivity and specificity are observed for the cumulative sum method, using individual variance and monitoring high active (sensitivity = 100%; specificity = 100%) and total active behaviours (sensitivity = 100%; specificity = 95%). Results of the DGLM method indicate a sensitivity of 100% and a specificity of 89% in average for both group S and NS. Observing the occurrence of alarm times, the DGLM method allows (i) earlier detection of farrowing: 15 h before the onset of farrowing, for both groups, as compared to 9–12 for the other methods; and (ii) a better distribution of alarms, i.e. minimize the number of alarms occurring within the last 6 h before farrowing.

► Automatic detection of parturition for sows housed in farrowing crates.
► Modeling of diurnal pattern based on dichotomous series of active behaviours.
► Detection method for parturition based on Dynamic Generalized Linear Models.
► Detection method for parturition based on cumulative sums.
► Sensitivity and specificity of the suggested methods range from 89% to 100%.