Real time monitoring of pig activity: practical difficulties in pigs' behaviour labelling

Video recording of two pens was made throughout 24 hours a day using a CCD camera placed 5 m above the floor. For the study 33 fattening pigs housed on a fully slatted floor were utilized. The software, called Eyenamic (Leroy et al., 2006b; Bloemen et al., 1997), measured activity levels of the pigs in practical conditions. Every second the algorithm logged the camera image and the activity index of the animals and stored these data for further analysis. Finally the data image files were visually checked and labelled in order to score animals' behaviour and perform a behavioural model to predict pigs aggressiveness as an early warning system to avoid animal losses.