The potential of non-movement behavior observation method for detection of sick broiler chickens

Abstract

The poultry industry, which produces excellent sources of protein, suffers enormous economic damage from diseases. To solve this problem, research is being conducted on the early detection of infection according to the behavioral characteristics of poultry. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the potential of a non-movement behavior observation method to detect sick chickens. Forty 1-day-old Ross 308 males were used in the experiments, and an isolator equipped with an Internet Protocol (IP) camera was fabricated for observation. The chickens were inoculated with Salmonella enterica serovar Gallinarum A18-GCVP-014, the causative agent of fowl typhoid (FT), at 14 days of age, which is a vulnerable period for FT infection. The chickens were continuously observed with an IP camera for 2 weeks after inoculation, chickens that did not move for more than 30 minutes were detected and marked according to the algorithm. FT infection was confirmed based on clinical symptoms, analysis of cardiac, spleen and liver lesion scores, pathogen re-isolation, and serological analysis. As a result, clinical symptoms were first observed four days after inoculation, and dead chickens were observed on day six. Eleven days after inoculation, the number of clinical symptoms gradually decreased, indicating a state of recovery. For lesion scores, dead chickens scored 3.57 and live chickens scored 2.38. Pathogens were re-isolated in 37 out of 40 chickens, and hemagglutination test was positive in seven out of 26 chickens. The IP camera applied with the algorithm detected about 83% of the chickens that died in advance through non-movement behavior observation. Therefore, observation of non-movement behavior is one of the ways to detect infected chickens in advance, and it appears to have potential for the development of remote broiler management system.