| 1. |
- Botermans, Jos, et al.
(author)
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Comparison between air inlet via channels under the building and air inlets via the ceiling for growing-finishing pigs
- 2014
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Other publication (other academic/artistic)abstract
- The aim of the studies was to compare the indoor climate between two different ventilation systems for growing-finishing pigs. In one housing system the air came into the pig house via channels under the lying area of the pigs. The air came into the compartment close to the lying area of the pigs. The first part of the exhaust air was via another channel along the manure channel (pit ventilation). The rest of the exhaust air was via two fans in the ceiling (farm 1). In the other housing system the air came into the pig house via air inlets in the ceiling. The exhaust air was via two fans in the ceiling (farm 2). Measurements were done during one summer batch and one winter batch. Air temperature was measured for 5-8 weeks with mini-loggers. Ammonia concentration, carbon dioxide concentration, air speed and differences in air pressure between in and outside the pig house, were registered at 4 occasions. During summer time, the temperature of incoming air via the channels under the building (farm 1) was almost the same as the temperature of the air outside. So the cooling effect in the channels was very small. However, on the farm with air inlets in the ceiling (farm 2), the incoming air, during the afternoon, was about 3 0C above the temperature outside. So during the warmest period of the day, the air was heated on the ceiling. On the farm with channels under the lying area, the pigs continued to lie on the concrete lying area instead of the slatted flooring and the cleanliness of the pens was good (farm 1). During winter time, the temperature of the incoming air via the channels under the building was about 4 0C above the air temperature outside. On the farm with air inlets in the ceiling, the air temperature of the incoming air was the same as the temperature of the air outside.
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| 4. |
- Jeppsson, Knut-Håkan, et al.
(author)
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Cooling growing/finishing pigs with showers in the slatted area: Effect on animal occupation area, pen fouling and ammonia emission
- 2021
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In: Livestock Science. - : Elsevier BV. - 1871-1413 .- 1878-0490. ; 243
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Growing and finishing pigs kept in insulated buildings are often exposed to high ambient temperature during summer. In high-temperature conditions, pigs in partly slatted pens change their behaviour to increase lying on the slatted area and fouling on the solid Hoor area, resulting in increased ammonia emissions. One way to cool the animals is to shower/sprinkle water in the slatted area, allowing pigs to wet their skin to increase heat loss. This study examined the effects of providing showers on pig activity and occupation area in pens, pen fouling and ammonia emission from the room. The investigation was performed in a commercial growing-finishing house with 10 identical rooms, each containing 16 pens for 9-13 pigs growing from 25-30 kg to 115-120 kg. Pigs were introduced into two parallel rooms in the house. During two summers and four batches, one room with showers in the slatted area and one room without per batch were compared in terms of concentrations of carbon dioxide (CO2) and ammonia (NH3), pig activity and occupation area in the pen, pen fouling and NH3 emissions, recorded on four measuring occasions (M1-M4) during the growing period. Gas concentrations were measured using a photoacoustic analyser, pig activity and occupation area detected by machine vision techniques and pen fouling was visually investigated. Climate parameters (air temperature and relative humidity) were logged continuously during the entire growing period. Ammonia emission was calculated from ventilation rate (determined by the indirect CO2 tracer gas method) and the difference in ammonia concentration between outlet and inlet air.The results showed that the pigs spent less time lying on the slats (p < 0.05) and the solid Hoor was cleaner (p < 0.05) on measuring occasions M2, M3 and M4 in rooms with showers than in control rooms. Mean NH3 emission for the four measurement occasions were 3.0-5.1 g pig(-1) day(-1) and 4.2-10.0 g pig(-1) day(-1) for the shower and control rooms, respectively. The differences were significant (p < 0.05) for all measuring occasions. The results also show improved animal environment when using showers to cool pigs at high ambient temperatures.Overall, providing showers in the slatted area in partly slatted pens encouraged growing/finishing pigs to lie in the lying area, reduced problems with pen fouling and decreased NH3 emissions by 45%. The latter could be partly due to reduced pen fouling and partly to dilution of urine on the slatted area and on the surface of slurry in the pit.
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| 5. |
- Jeppsson, Knut-Håkan, et al.
(author)
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Deep Learning and Machine Vision Approaches for Posture Detection of Individual Pigs
- 2019
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In: Sensors (Basel, Switzerland). - : MDPI AG. - 1424-8220. ; 19
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Posture detection targeted towards providing assessments for the monitoring of health and welfare of pigs has been of great interest to researchers from different disciplines. Existing studies applying machine vision techniques are mostly based on methods using three-dimensional imaging systems, or two-dimensional systems with the limitation of monitoring under controlled conditions. Thus, the main goal of this study was to determine whether a two-dimensional imaging system, along with deep learning approaches, could be utilized to detect the standing and lying (belly and side) postures of pigs under commercial farm conditions. Three deep learning-based detector methods, including faster regions with convolutional neural network features (Faster R-CNN), single shot multibox detector (SSD) and region-based fully convolutional network (R-FCN), combined with Inception V2, Residual Network (ResNet) and Inception ResNet V2 feature extractions of RGB images were proposed. Data from different commercial farms were used for training and validation of the proposed models. The experimental results demonstrated that the R-FCN ResNet101 method was able to detect lying and standing postures with higher average precision (AP) of 0.93, 0.95 and 0.92 for standing, lying on side and lying on belly postures, respectively and mean average precision (mAP) of more than 0.93.
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| 6. |
- Jeppsson, Knut-Håkan, et al.
(author)
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Environmental and economic consequences of pig-cooling strategies implemented in a European pig-fattening unit
- 2021
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In: Journal of Cleaner Production. - : Elsevier BV. - 0959-6526 .- 1879-1786. ; 290
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The increased frequency of hot days due to climate change can potentially impair the environmental and economic performance of pig-fattening farms. Several pig-cooling strategies have been proposed to address these impacts, however their implementation is not always economically viable and the potential environmental-economic trade-offs not well understood. Here, we propose and implement a novel framework for environmental and economic evaluation of pig-cooling strategies in a whole farm context. We also demonstrate through a sensitivity analysis how such models can be integrated with projected climate data to investigate how climate change may affect the assessment of capital investments that are made over significant timescales. We considered two strategies implemented in a pig fattening farm in south Sweden: pig-cooling with showers and with increased air velocity. Operation of the farm under non-cooling conditions was considered as the baseline system against which the analysis was conducted. We calculated whole-farm annual equivalent values (AEV) with the implementation of each strategy through a discounted cash flow analysis and annualised system environmental impact through a life cycle assessment. Both cooling strategies significantly reduced system environmental impact across all categories except water footprint. Acidification potential was reduced the most, exhibiting a-3.28% reduction with pig showers and-1.51% with increased air velocity. Farm profitability improved by +6.79% with showers and +3.37% with increased air velocity. Ambient temperature increase under non-cooling conditions significantly increased all impact categories with acidification being affected the most (+2.24%), and caused a-4.43% decrease in AEV. Both pig-cooling strategies mitigated these effects on system environmental performance. With increased air velocity we observed a +0.718% increase in acidification, while pig showers were the more resilient option exhibiting a +0.690% increase. The study represents a case-in-point for how to rationalise economically environmental management technologies in pig housing systems based on their cost-effectiveness in mitigating environmental impacts.(c) 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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| 8. |
- Jeppsson, Knut-Håkan, et al.
(author)
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Increased air velocity in the lying area improves pen hygiene and reduces ammonia emissions from houses with partly slatted pens for growing/finishing pigs
- 2021
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In: Livestock Science. - : Elsevier BV. - 1871-1413 .- 1878-0490. ; 251
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Partly slatted pens can offer growing/finishing pigs a better house environment than pens with fully slatted floors. Under thermoneutral conditions, pigs prefer to rest on a solid area and some litter can be provided as enrichment. Ammonia emissions are lower in systems with partly slatted pens, provided the pens are kept clean. However, under high-temperature conditions, pigs in partly slatted pens may begin lying on the slatted area and fouling on the solid floor area, resulting in increased ammonia emissions. This study examined the effects of increasing the air velocity (IAV) in the lying area from max 0.5 m s(-1) to max 1.0 m s(-1) on conditions for pigs in partly slatted pens during warm periods. Air velocity was increased by redirecting the inlet air from the ceiling inlets down into the animal zone.The study was performed in a commercial growing/finishing house with 10 identical moms, each containing 16 pens for 9-14 pigs growing from 25-30 kg to 115-120 kg live weight. Pigs were introduced simultaneously into two parallel rooms, one with IAV in the lying area and one without (control treatment). During two summers with six batches, concentrations of carbon dioxide (CO2) and ammonia (NH3), pig activity and choice of lying area in the pen, pen fouling and NH3 emissions were recorded in both moms on four measuring occasions (M1-M4) during the growing period. Gas concentrations were measured by photoacoustic analyser, pig activity and pig choice of lying area by machine vision techniques, and pen fouling by visual inspection. Climate parameters (air temperature, relative humidity) were logged continuously during the growing period. Ammonia emissions were calculated from the ventilation rate (determined by the indirect CO2 tracer gas method) and the difference in ammonia concentration between outlet and inlet air.Under high ambient temperatures, pigs in the IAV treatment were observed lying significantly more often (p<0.05) in the part of the lying area with the highest air velocity. Pigs tended to lie less in the slatted area (p=0.052) in the IAV treatment than in the control. Problems with pen fouling were significantly reduced with increased air velocity in the lying area and NH3 emissions were reduced by 21% (p=0.009), from 8.4 to 6.6 g pig(-1) da(-1) , during the late growing period (M4).In conclusion, increasing air velocity in the lying area of partly slatted pens from max 0.5 to max 1.0 m s(-1) influenced pigs choice of lying area, improved pen hygiene and reduced ammonia emissions.
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| 9. |
- Jeppsson, Knut-Håkan, et al.
(author)
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Åtgärder för att förbättra boxhygien och reducera ammoniakemission i konventionella slaktgrisboxar
- 2021
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In: LTV-fakultetens faktablad.
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Other publication (pop. science, debate, etc.)abstract
- Genom att duscha vatten över spaltgolvet får grisarna möjlighet att blöta huden och därmed öka värmeavgivningen under varma perioder. Systemet ändrar var i boxen grisarna väljer att ligga så att de ligger mindre på spaltgolvet och mer på liggytan. När spaltgolvet inte är upptaget av liggande grisar tvingas inte grisarna att gödsla/urinera på den fasta liggytan. Därmed förbättras boxhygienen och ammoniakförlusterna minskar. Ökad lufthastighet på liggytan ger också grisarna bättre möjlighet till kylning, vilket medför bättre boxhygien och mindre ammoniakförluster. Detta är två metoder att kyla grisarna som kan utföras i befintliga stallar. Åtgärderna har studerats under två varma sommarperioder i ett EU-projekt med samarbete mellan sex länder
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| 10. |
- Olsson, Anne-Charlotte, et al.
(author)
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Automatic scoring of lateral and sternal lying posture in grouped pigs using image processing and Support Vector Machine
- 2019
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In: Computers and Electronics in Agriculture. - : Elsevier BV. - 0168-1699 .- 1872-7107. ; 156, s. 475-481
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The behaviour of animals provides information on their health, welfare and environmental situation. In different climatic conditions, pigs adopt different lying postures; at higher temperatures they lie laterally on their side with their limbs extended, while in lower temperatures they will adopt a sternal or belly lying posture. Machine vision has been widely used in recent years to monitor individual and group pig behaviours. So, the aim of this study was to determine whether a two-dimensional imaging system could be used for lateral and sternal lying posture detection in grouped pigs under commercial farm conditions. An image processing algorithm with Support Vector Machine (SVM) classifier was applied in this work. Pigs were monitored by top view RGB cameras and animals were extracted from their background using a background subtracting method. Based on the binary image properties, the boundaries and convex hull of each animal were found. In order to determine their lying posture, the area and perimeter of each boundary and convex hull were calculated in lateral and sternal lying postures as inputs for training of a linear SVM classifier. The trained SVM was then used to detect the target postures in binary images. By means of the image features and the classification technique, it was possible to automatically score the lateral and sternal lying posture in grouped pigs under commercial farm conditions with high accuracy of 94.4% for the classification and 94% for the scoring (detection) phases using two-dimensional images.
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