Evaluation of the feeding behaviour of broilers in different thermal environments via image analysis

The ambient temperature influences the performance of birds by altering the rate of feed consumption, welfare, productivity, the maintenance requirement and behavior. Traditionally, the study of the behavior is performed by visual observations of the animals, responses obtained are not reliable, since the human presence may inhibit the natural behavior of the birds. The objective of this study was to evaluate the relationship between ambient temperature and the frequency of the feeder animals eating frequency at the feeders by analyzing images. The experiment was conducted in climate chambers with male broiler chickens, with one day old, divided into five treatments with different thermal environments, Comfort Literature (33°C) Comfort Cassuce (30°C), Cold Light (27°C), Cold Moderate (24°C) Cold Severe (21°C). The images were processed and analyzed with the aid of the computer program MATLAB 7.12®. First, the segmentation of images was made, defining the area of interest (feeders), and then the frequency of the animals in this area was determined. The algorithm was validated using data obtained from visual analysis of the generated video. The most stressful environments for cold, severe cold and moderate cold temperature had the highest frequencies at the feeder when compared to the trough temperatures of comfort.