Heat Detection of Gilts Using Digital Infrared Thermal Imaging Camera
Heat Detection of Gilts Using Digital Infrared Thermal Imaging Camera
Veasna Chem1 †, Hong-Seok Mun1,2 †, Keiven Mark B. Ampode1, Shad Mahfuz1, Il-Byung Chung1, Muhammad Ammar Dilawar1,3, Chul-Ju Yang1,3,*
ABSTRACT
The body temperature of livestock animals can be the main parameter for measuring their health and well-being, such as proestrus, estrus, and pregnancy. The control of estrus and ovulation has become the main topic for a batch of flow management, and the failure to detect estrus accurately has the greatest impact on labor rate and little size. Digital infrared thermal imaging (DITI) technology can easily recognize and detect animals’ temperature changes, which would be useful in farm animal production. This study investigates the possibility of replacing a contact thermometer with a non-contact thermometer and digital infrared thermal imaging camera (DITI) to detect the estrus of gilts. Seven gilts (129.21±2.51kg) were considered for this experiment. Each gilt was fed 5 ml of synthetic progesterone for 18 days, and the anus temperature was measured using the contact thermometer, non-contact infrared thermometer, and DITI camera FLIR E76. The temperature of the vulva during proestrus and estrus was measured using a DITI camera FLIR E76. As a result, there was no significant difference (p>0.05) in the anus temperature using the thermometer, non-contact infrared thermometer, and DITI camera FLIR E76. Moreover, the average vulva temperature during estrus was 34.5°C and proestrus was 33.7°C with a difference of 0.8°C. The temperature range and the value differences between proestrus and estrus suggested that the DITI camera could be a new technology for heat detection in gilts.
Keywords | Temperature, Proestrus, Estrus, Thermal camera
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