An ambulatory physiological monitor for animal welfare studies

Electronic Monitoring System for Measuring Heart Rate and Skin Temperature in Small Ruminants

“…The unit was 10.0 cm in length, 8.5 cm in width, and 2.5 cm in thickness, and weighed 186 g. The size of the casing was approximately 121 g. These dimensions and mass preclude the use of this unit in small animals. However, the adequate use of this equipment does not require surgical or invasive procedures, which are necessary when using other equipment of this category (Harris et al, 2001), thus min imizing stress in the tested animals. The period of data acquisition was 1,446 days using a 2-GB memory card.…”

“…Lowe et al (2007) solved this problem by establishing a longer data acquisition interval in the recording and wireless communicat ion modules. Harris et al (2001) used a photovoltaic panel to recharge a battery and maintain the energy supply to the equipment. However, the same authors observed that the mass and size of the device was too large for small ru minants.…”

Study on duck weight estimation by using image processing

“…Market demands force producers to increase the number of animals in their flock or herd with fewer available resources (per animal). Responding the demands of the market while providing enough care to the individual animals, farmers might use automatic tools to monitor welfare and health of their animals [2]. While existing systems facilitate an efficient use of land and labour, the increased number of animals per farm has resulted in new welfare problems because time is too limited to provide individual animal care [3].…”