Browsing by Author "Marquetoux N"
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- ItemWhat Are Sheep Doing? Tri-Axial Accelerometer Sensor Data Identify the Diel Activity Pattern of Ewe Lambs on Pasture(MDPI (Basel, Switzerland), 2021-10) Ikurior SJ; Marquetoux N; Leu ST; Corner-Thomas RA; Scott I; Pomroy WEMonitoring activity patterns of animals offers the opportunity to assess individual health and welfare in support of precision livestock farming. The purpose of this study was to use a triaxial accelerometer sensor to determine the diel activity of sheep on pasture. Six Perendale ewe lambs, each fitted with a neck collar mounting a triaxial accelerometer, were filmed during targeted periods of sheep activities: grazing, lying, walking, and standing. The corresponding acceleration data were fitted using a Random Forest algorithm to classify activity (=classifier). This classifier was then applied to accelerometer data from an additional 10 ewe lambs to determine their activity budgets. Each of these was fitted with a neck collar mounting an accelerometer as well as two additional accelerometers placed on a head halter and a body harness over the shoulders of the animal. These were monitored continuously for three days. A classification accuracy of 89.6% was achieved for the grazing, walking and resting activities (i.e., a new class combining lying and standing activity). Triaxial accelerometer data showed that sheep spent 64% (95% CI 55% to 74%) of daylight time grazing, with grazing at night reduced to 14% (95% CI 8% to 20%). Similar activity budgets were achieved from the halter mounted sensors, but not those on a body harness. These results are consistent with previous studies directly observing daily activity of pasture-based sheep and can be applied in a variety of contexts to investigate animal health and welfare metrics e.g., to better understand the impact that young sheep can suffer when carrying even modest burdens of parasitic nematodes.
- ItemWorms and welfare: Behavioural and physiological changes associated with gastrointestinal nematode parasitism in lambs.(Elsevier B.V., 2023-10-27) Hempstead MN; Waghorn TS; Gibson MJ; Sauermann CW; Ross AB; Cave VM; Sutherland MA; Marquetoux N; Hannaford R; Corner-Thomas RA; Sutherland IAParasitism with gastrointestinal nematodes (GIN) is a worldwide issue impacting negatively on animal production, health, and welfare. Therefore, early diagnostic signs of parasitism are required to allow for timely interventions. The objective of this study was to evaluate the behavioural and physiological changes in lambs associated with GIN infection. We used 30, 8-month-old Romney-cross wethers, that were administered anthelmintics until faecal egg counts (FEC) were zero and housed in an indoor facility. The study lasted 9 weeks, which comprised a 3-week pre-treatment, and a 6-week treatment phase. Lambs were randomly assigned to one of two treatments (n = 15/treatment) trickle-dosed with: 1) 1500 infective third stage larvae (L3) three days/week for 6 weeks (27,000 total L3; challenged), or 2) water 3 days/week for 6 weeks (control). Within each pen there were 5 pairs of lambs (balanced for liveweight), with each pair comprising a challenged and control lamb. Blood, faecal, and saliva samples were collected 1 week pre-treatment and weekly for 6 weeks of treatment. Behaviour was observed (e.g., feeding, lying, standing) from video-camera recordings using scan sampling every 5 min for 8 h, 1 day pre-treatment and on the day immediately prior to physiological sampling across the 6-week treatment phase (7 days in total). Accelerometers were attached to each lamb to continuously monitor behaviour from 3 weeks pre-treatment and for the remainder of the study. Liveweight, body condition, faecal soiling and faecal consistency scoring were performed weekly as was lipidomic analysis of plasma samples. From week 2 of treatment, challenged lambs spent less time feeding and more time lying than control lambs until week 5 of treatment (P ≤ 0.01). At week 3 of treatment, elevated lipids (mainly triglycerides and phospholipids), loose faeces and faecal soiling around the anus were observed in challenged lambs compared with controls (P ≤ 0.05). From week 4 of treatment, FEC were elevated in the challenged compared to control lambs (P ≤ 0.05). There was also lower liveweight gain at 4 and 5 weeks of treatment in the challenged lambs compared with control lambs (P ≤ 0.05). These results show a clear timeline of changes in behaviour (e.g., feeding and lying), lipids such as triglycerides, and digestive function (e.g., faecal soiling) suggestive of GIN subclinical disease, which show promise for use in future studies on early identification of subclinical GIN parasitism in lambs.