TY - JOUR
T1 - Discriminating spontaneous locomotor play of dairy calves using accelerometers
AU - Größbacher, V.
AU - Bučková, K.
AU - Lawrence, A B
AU - Špinka, Marek
AU - Winckler, C.
PY - 2020/2/2
Y1 - 2020/2/2
N2 - In calves, play behavior is a promising indicator to assess both compromised and enhanced welfare. However, quantifying play is difficult due to its rare and irregular occurrence. We aimed to validate 1 Hz accelerometer recordings to measure locomotor play of dairy calves in their home-pens. Accelerometer data were combined into 10 s periods and periods were categorized as PLAY/NOPLAY using quadratic discriminant analysis. Comparing these periods with behavior recorded from video, play was correctly classified in 79% of cases. Based on a correlation of rP=0.87 with observed play intervals, it may be used as a proxy to replace behavior observations.
AB - In calves, play behavior is a promising indicator to assess both compromised and enhanced welfare. However, quantifying play is difficult due to its rare and irregular occurrence. We aimed to validate 1 Hz accelerometer recordings to measure locomotor play of dairy calves in their home-pens. Accelerometer data were combined into 10 s periods and periods were categorized as PLAY/NOPLAY using quadratic discriminant analysis. Comparing these periods with behavior recorded from video, play was correctly classified in 79% of cases. Based on a correlation of rP=0.87 with observed play intervals, it may be used as a proxy to replace behavior observations.
U2 - 10.3168/jds.2019-17005
DO - 10.3168/jds.2019-17005
M3 - Article
SN - 0022-0302
SP - 1866
EP - 1873
JO - Journal of Dairy Science
JF - Journal of Dairy Science
ER -