Pigs Consume more Water When Stressed
Two novel technologies consisting of an individual water consumption system (IWCS) and infrared thermography system (ITHS) were installed in a finishing room. The individual water consumption system (installed in each pen) was composed of a nipple drinker attached to a water flow meter, and an RFID reader (and antenna) to capture individual pig data. The infrared thermography system was composed of two types of infrared cameras, one to capture images of individual pigs drinking, a second to capture an image of all the pigs in the pen. To assess whether the novel technologies were capable of detecting pigs that may be stressed due to routine practices, two stressors were introduced during the trial: (1) moving pigs to the barn hallway and handling them through a pre-defined route for 10 minutes, and (2) mixing unfamiliar groups of pigs.
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