Monitoring pig behaviour by RFID registrations

Automation of the monitoring of pig behaviour can support management; deviating behaviour can be an indicator for disease or other disturbances. Registrations of RFID at specific places in a pen can be used to estimate the individual pig behaviour in order to detect abnormalities in drinking and eating behaviour. LF RFID tags were applied to pigs in the period from weaning until the start of the fattening phase. This was done in several experiments at the Dutch Swine Innovation Centre in the South of the Netherlands. In each experiment, 12 pigs were monitored, each equipped with a RFID tag in the right ear. Three readers were installed at the drinking place: (1) and at the feeding trough (2) video recordings were available to validate the results from the processed RFID readings. The performance of the system depended on the established reading distance of the readers. Tag readings were combined into visits by applying a bout criterion. Visits were combined into meals by applying a meal criterion. A good correspondence between tag readings and observed visits was found. A longer reading distance resulted in more tag readings that did not coincide with eating or drinking (but with resting behaviour nearby). Combining the two readers at the feeding trough as if they were one gave better results. The derived visits and meals can be used for detection of deviations on the number per pig per day (or per pig per part of the day). This automated detection can be a valuable tool in pig farming.