Validation of a Radio frequency identification system for tracking location of laying hens in a quasi-commercial aviary system

Abstract

Cage-free housing is increasingly chosen in Europe, North America, and Australia as an animal-welfare friendly farm system for laying hens. However, hens are kept in large numbers in those systems which makes controlling for health and welfare difficult and individuals cannot be identified. Tracking systems like radio frequency identification allow researchers to monitor these individuals almost continuously. Individual tracking data have revealed substantial individual variation in movement patterns, however, in recent studies, only a subset of animals per flock was tracked. We applied an RFID tracking system for all 1115 laying hens of a flock in 5 pens à 225 birds in a barn with an aviary system. In each pen, 26 antennas were placed on the edges of three tiers and in the litter. For validation purposes, 3 hens in 2 connected pens were fitted with colored backpacks. They were recorded on video and their location throughout the pen was taken from the video and compared with registrations from the RFID system. For 93% of compared transitions, the RFID data matched the observational data regarding the tier or litter whereas the value fell to 39% for specific antennae. When the antennae on the litter were excluded for the validation, the match on tier-level was at least 98% but on antenna-level it remained lower than 50%. The sensitivity of the detection of tiers/litter but not antennae differed among the three hens. We conclude that the RFID tracking system was suitable for studying the movement pattern of individual hens among tiers in an aviary system in a reliable way but tracking birds on the litter needs to be improved.

Mapping Welfare: Location Determining Techniques and Their Potential for Managing Cattle Welfare—A Review

“…An active RFID has a battery that enables higher signal strength and an extended communication range of up to 100 m, but is larger due to the presence of that battery and more electronic components [112,113]. The speed of travel of the animal [114,115] and body tissue near the transponders [116,117] have a strong influence on the reading performance of the system so the optimal position of the tag and reader should be considered [117]. Curran et al [112] experimented with RFID-Radar where the reader calculates the location of transponders while interfacing with the reader instead of just recording its presence.…”

An Initial Study on the Use of Machine Learning and Radio Frequency Identification Data for Predicting Health Outcomes in Free-Range Laying Hens

“…Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology has been widely adopted as a viable approach for identifying and tracking the movement of individual animals in agricultural production systems, both within scientific studies and commercial systems [ 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 ]. The low cost and the small size of on-animal devices makes this technology a versatile solution for investigating how animals access resources and use areas within a production system.…”