Application of overall dynamic body acceleration as a proxy for estimating the energy expenditure of grazing farm animals: relationship with heart rate

Estimating the energy expenditure of farm animals at pasture is important for efficient animal management. In recent years, an alternative technique for estimating energy expenditure by measuring body acceleration has been widely performed in wildlife and human studies, but the availability of the t...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PloS one 2015-06, Vol.10 (6), p.e0128042-e0128042
Main Authors: Miwa, Masafumi, Oishi, Kazato, Nakagawa, Yasuhiro, Maeno, Hiromichi, Anzai, Hiroki, Kumagai, Hajime, Okano, Kanji, Tobioka, Hisaya, Hirooka, Hiroyuki
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Acceleration
Accelerometers
Agriculture
Animal behavior
Animal sciences
Animals
Body weight
Bovidae
Breeding of animals
Caprinae
Cattle
Commercial farms
Eating - physiology
Ecosystems
Electrodes
Energy
Energy expenditure
Energy management
Energy measurement
Energy Metabolism
Estimation
Exercise
Farms
Goats
Goats - metabolism
Goats - physiology
Grasslands
Grazing
Heart Rate
Laboratories
Metabolism
Methods
Nutrition
Ovis aries
Pasture
Physical fitness
Proxy
Sheep
Sheep - metabolism
Sheep - physiology
Wildlife
Wildlife management
Zoology
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Summary:Estimating the energy expenditure of farm animals at pasture is important for efficient animal management. In recent years, an alternative technique for estimating energy expenditure by measuring body acceleration has been widely performed in wildlife and human studies, but the availability of the technique in farm animals has not yet been examined. In the present study, we tested the potential use of an acceleration index, overall dynamic body acceleration (ODBA), as a new proxy for estimating the energy expenditure of grazing farm animals (cattle, goats and sheep) at pasture with the simultaneous evaluation of a conventional proxy, heart rate. Body accelerations in three axes and heart rate for cows (n = 8, two breeds), goats (n = 6) and sheep (n = 5) were recorded, and the effect of ODBA calculated from the body accelerations on heart rate was analyzed. In addition, the effects of the two other activity indices, the number of steps and vectorial dynamic body acceleration (VeDBA), on heart rate were also investigated. The results of the comparison among three activity indices indicated that ODBA was the best predictor for heart rate. Although the relationship between ODBA and heart rate was different between the groups of species and breeds and between individuals (P
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0128042