SILVA, Wagner Tomé.; MOURA, Daniella Jorge de.; MENDES, Angélica Signor.; LIMA, Karla Andrea OLiveira de.; NÄÄS, Irenilza de Alencar.
Abstract:
The producer’s need to increase productivity and process economics leads to the use of
technologies directed to the management of both production and environment in order to reach
thermal comfort and animal welfare. The understanding of animal behavior through the use of image
analysis may be an efficient method for estimating welfare in a non-invasive way. Among the
systems and techniques used in process control and monitoring computer vision and image processing
have been studied and applied in the production (animal growing phase) process as well as in product
processing. This research had the objective of developing an algorithm, and use it in the development
of a software that could identify thermal comfort and welfare in piglets, using vision analysis based
on behavioral data. The software was validated in a commercial swine farrowing house, where based
on the piglet’s mass center position, the piglet’s floor use was found, and consequently their welfare
condition.
