TY - GEN
T1 - The use of infrared thermography to assess stress in pigs
AU - Sutherland, M.
AU - Dowling, S.
AU - Backus, B.
AU - Stewart, M.
PY - 2015
Y1 - 2015
N2 - Stress can negatively impact animal health and production, therefore to improve current management practices it is important to be able to measure stress in animals. Most methods for measuring stress in pigs are invasive (e.g. blood sampling) or require fitting animals with devices (e.g. heart rate monitors). These techniques can cause a stress response themselves and perturb the measurement of interest. Infrared thermography (IRT) has been validated as a non-invasive measure to detect pain and stress (e.g. fright, disbudding, and castration) in cattle. The objectives of this pilot study were to 1) investigate the potential for IRT as a non-invasive measure of stress in pigs and 2) compare the eye and snout as regions to provide the most sensitive measure of stress. Ten, 5-week-old, pigs received all three of the following treatments in a randomised cross-over design: 1) saline infusion (SAL), 2) epinephrine infusion (EPI) and 3) restraint (RES) for 2 minutes. Continuous IRT images of the eye and snout, heart rate (HR) and heart rate variability (HRV) were recorded 5 minutes prior and 10 minutes post-treatment. Eye temperature was lower in response to an infusion of EPI and RES than SAL, but only RES caused a change in snout temperature. Conversely, HR was higher in RES and EPI than SAL pigs. Temperature changes suggest that the eye may be a more sensitive area to assess stress than the snout. However, there were some methodological issues associated with taking IRT images of the eye including the small size of the eye and mobility of the pigs. IRT has potential for measuring stress in pigs non-invasively, however, further research needs to be undertaken to improve the methodology for collecting the images and correcting the data for environmental conditions.
AB - Stress can negatively impact animal health and production, therefore to improve current management practices it is important to be able to measure stress in animals. Most methods for measuring stress in pigs are invasive (e.g. blood sampling) or require fitting animals with devices (e.g. heart rate monitors). These techniques can cause a stress response themselves and perturb the measurement of interest. Infrared thermography (IRT) has been validated as a non-invasive measure to detect pain and stress (e.g. fright, disbudding, and castration) in cattle. The objectives of this pilot study were to 1) investigate the potential for IRT as a non-invasive measure of stress in pigs and 2) compare the eye and snout as regions to provide the most sensitive measure of stress. Ten, 5-week-old, pigs received all three of the following treatments in a randomised cross-over design: 1) saline infusion (SAL), 2) epinephrine infusion (EPI) and 3) restraint (RES) for 2 minutes. Continuous IRT images of the eye and snout, heart rate (HR) and heart rate variability (HRV) were recorded 5 minutes prior and 10 minutes post-treatment. Eye temperature was lower in response to an infusion of EPI and RES than SAL, but only RES caused a change in snout temperature. Conversely, HR was higher in RES and EPI than SAL pigs. Temperature changes suggest that the eye may be a more sensitive area to assess stress than the snout. However, there were some methodological issues associated with taking IRT images of the eye including the small size of the eye and mobility of the pigs. IRT has potential for measuring stress in pigs non-invasively, however, further research needs to be undertaken to improve the methodology for collecting the images and correcting the data for environmental conditions.
KW - Eye temperature
KW - Heart rate variability
KW - Infrared thermography
KW - Pigs
KW - Stress
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84949604300&partnerID=8YFLogxK
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:84949604300
T3 - Precision Livestock Farming 2015 - Papers Presented at the 7th European Conference on Precision Livestock Farming, ECPLF 2015
SP - 691
EP - 699
BT - Precision Livestock Farming 2015 - Papers Presented at the 7th European Conference on Precision Livestock Farming, ECPLF 2015
A2 - Guarino, Marcella
A2 - Berckmans, D.
PB - European Conference on Precision Livestock Farming
T2 - 7th European Conference on Precision Livestock Farming, ECPLF 2015
Y2 - 15 September 2015 through 18 September 2015
ER -