Detección precoz de mortalidad en producciones avícolas empleando termografía de alta resolución

Resumen

Modern poultry production facilities grouped together a very high number of individuals in battery cages. This concentration represents a challenge for the temperature control inside the buildings, to ensure that animals are within their range of thermal comfort (12-24 °C in the case of laying hens). Similarly, early detection of potential problems or dead individuals is an essential task to ensure the welfare of the remaining animals. Continuous monitoring of the temperature in poultry houses may contribute to the first mentioned aspect, while early detection of dead animals or those affected by alterations involving changes in their temperature, could be operated through thermal imaging. Thermal imaging is a technique based on the conversion of the infrared spectrum of an object into visible images for further analysis. The ability of determining temperature at a certain distance and with sufficient spatial resolution makes this technique particularly suitable for temperature monitoring of the animals in current commercial installations. Therefore, the main objective of this work is to improve hen’s welfare in poultry farms assessing: a) the feasibility of thermal imaging for early identification of dead animals and b) the feasibility of implementing autonomous devices of T ª loggers RFID TurboTag for environmental monitoring. This study analyzes the results obtained from the thermal imaging euthanized hens during two sessions of autopsies in an evaluation study of two vaccination programs against Salmonella carried out by the Health Surveillance Centre (VISAVET-UCM), March-April 2012. The results obtained show how the cooling of the most exposed areas (face, crest and legs) can be adjusted using a logistic regression with a high determination coefficient (r2 greater than 0.97). The implementation of an automated system for the early detection of dead individuals in the industry requires the use of image analysis techniques, outlined in this study, and further studies with broader climatic conditions. Furthermore, TurboTag cards are an effective (T ª differences detected up to 40 ° C between sites and over measures period) and low cost tool for environmental characterization of poultry houses.