Accepted Manuscript

Agreement between passive infrared detector measurements and

human observations of animal activity

R. Besteiro , M.R. Rodrı́guez , M.D. Fernandez , J.A. Ortega ,

R. Velo

PII: S1871-1413(18)30184-7
DOI: 10.1016/j.livsci.2018.06.008
Reference: LIVSCI 3481

To appear in: Livestock Science

Received date: 21 November 2017

Revised date: 15 June 2018
Accepted date: 16 June 2018

Please cite this article as: R. Besteiro , M.R. Rodrı́guez , M.D. Fernandez , J.A. Ortega , R. Velo ,
Agreement between passive infrared detector measurements and human observations of animal ac-
tivity, Livestock Science (2018), doi: 10.1016/j.livsci.2018.06.008

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 ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT

Highlights

 Passive infrared (PIR) detector has been used to measure animal activity in
piglets

 This measurements were validated by a human observation of the animals

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Both methods agree in the level of activity detected

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 PIR detector slightly overestimates the activity observed by human

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 PIR detectors can provide an accurately estimation of the relative animal
activity

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Agreement between passive infrared detector

measurements and human observations of animal

activity

R. Besteiroa*, M.R. Rodrígueza, M.D. Fernandeza, J.A. Ortegaa, R. Veloa

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Department of Agroforestry Engineering, University of Santiago de Compostela, Campus

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Terra, 27002, Lugo, Spain

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*corresponding author: roberto.besteiro@rai.usc.es

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Abstract
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Passive infrared (PIR) detectors are widely used to measure animal activity, which is an

increasingly relevant variable for livestock production insofar as activity is an indicator of

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animal welfare. This paper evaluates the agreement between two animal activity measurement
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methods: a PIR detector that uses the sensor’s digital signal to perform measurements and

human observations of activity in a group of 50 weaned piglets on a commercial farm. The

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location chosen for the sensor allowed for the recording of the main transverse movements with

respect to the orientation of the sensor, which maximized its detection capacity. Human
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observation revealed two types of behavioral activity, feeding (eating or drinking) and playing.

Based on the characteristics of both measurement methods, the correlations between PIR

detection and human observation of animal activity were strong, with a Spearman’s correlation

coefficient of 0.90 (p < 0.001) and a concordance correlation coefficient of 0.86. PIR detection

overestimated animal activity by 2.59% as compared to human observation, and the precision of

PIR measurements decreased with the increase in the level of activity in the pen. In addition,

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animal weight affected the quality of measurements, which decreased with the increase in the

ratio between kg of live weight and area covered by the sensor. The type of activity affected the

precision of PIR detectors, which better detected playing activities, which are more intense than

feeding activities. It can be concluded that PIR detector measurements of activity in groups of

animals provide a good estimation of the relative activity of the group, which is comparable to

visual estimation of relative activity.

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Keywords: Animal activity; PIR detector; validation; pig; behavior.

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1. Introduction
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The increasing concern of consumers over the welfare of farm animals raised for food, together

with health and legal issues, led the Council of the European Union to enact directives laying
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minimum standards for the protection of the main farm species, such as pigs (Council Directive

2008/120/EC) or chickens kept for meat production (Council Directive 2007/43/EC). In this
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context, factors such as animal activity and behavior emerge as useful indicators for establishing

a level of animal welfare on livestock farms, and become particularly relevant in intensive
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production systems, which restrict some behaviors considered as natural by ethology.

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Animal activity has been used as an indicator of animal health status and, consequently, of

animal welfare by Escobar et al. (2007), who have found changes in the behavior of pigs
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infected with the porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV). Kristensen and

Cornou (2011) have suggested an automatic monitoring system for the detection of irregular

activity patterns in broiler chicken flocks that may be indicative of welfare problems. In

addition, other behaviors, such as changes in water drinking patterns can reveal signs of

subclinical diseases (Madsen and Kristensen, 2005) or of increased competition in pens

(Andersen et al., 2014). Therefore, measuring animal behavior can play a key role in the early

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detection of illnesses or other welfare problems and, consequently, in the mitigation of

deficiencies in animal welfare and in the improvement of farm production efficiency (Matthews

et al., 2016).

Moreover, the activity level of animals is directly related to air quality inside farms buildings.

For instance, animal activity directly affects heat production (Pedersen et al., 2015), exhaled

CO2 and humidity (Zong et al., 2014), or NH3 emissions in the building (Ngwabie et al., 2011).

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In this respect, a number of daily activity patterns are available from the literature for various

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species, such as pigs (Besteiro et al., 2017; Schauberger et al., 2013; Villagrá et al., 2007),

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rabbits (Estellés et al., 2010) or dairy cows (Dohme-Meier et al., 2014). The evidence available

for such relationships points to the need to develop climate control systems based on the

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animals and their behavior under different building environmental conditions (Youssef et al.,

2015).
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Accordingly, predicting animal activity and behavior becomes a key issue in the implementation

of Smart Farming technologies. Yet, the concern for animal behavior is not new to farmers, who
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have traditionally used animal behavior as the main indicator of the health status of livestock.
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Typically, farmers assessed animal activity or behavior by visual inspection of the animals, but

the increase in farm size and in the number of animals per farmer makes visual inspection
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economically unviable.
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For this reason, in the last few decades many authors have focused on finding new technologies

for measuring animal activity. Among such technologies are accelerometers, which are widely
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used to monitor the activity of various animal species (Alvarenga et al., 2016; Johnson and

Shade, 2017; Shahriar et al., 2016), or radio-frequency identification systems, which are used to

detect behavior patterns in livestock species (Brown-Brandl et al., 2013; Gebhardt-Henrich et

al., 2014). Actually, the validity of accelerometer measurements has been assessed by a number

of authors (Oczak et al., 2016; Robert et al., 2009). More recently, some authors have proposed

the use of machine vision systems for measuring activity in groups of animals and predicting

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water intake, among other variables (Kashiha et al., 2013; Matthews et al., 2016; Ott et al.,

2014).

However, the above methods are sometimes too expensive, particularly for measuring activity

in groups or on farms with a modular design, such as weaner farms. Pedersen and Pedersen

(1995) proposed a novel method that used PIR detectors with signal post-processing to measure

animal activity. The proposed method was more limited in terms of behavior detection but it

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was cheaper for farms and could be more widely implemented. Many authors have further used

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this method to measure activity in different livestock species, but particularly in pigs (Besteiro

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et al., 2017; Bünger et al., 2015; Lin et al., 2017; Ngwabie et al., 2011; Ni et al., 2017; Nielsen

et al., 2003; Schauberger et al., 2013). Yet, the method has not been validated against other

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reference methods under real farm conditions. Nevertheless, Pedersen and Pedersen (1995) have

validated their method with heated artificial bodies under laboratory conditions, Nielsen (2003)
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has compared PIR measurements of abrupt changes in activity of group housed broilers with

measurements performed using a machine vision system, and Puppe et al. (1999) has validated
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the method in suckling piglets housed in a 5.3 m2 open field pen covered by 14 PIR detectors.
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Therefore, the aims of this paper are: 1) to develop a method that uses the PIR signal of a

commercial sensor and can be easily implemented on farms; 2) to validate measurements by

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PIR detectors against human observations of animal activity on a commercial weaner farm.
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2. Materials and methods

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Animal activity is here defined as the movements made by the animals while they are

performing active behaviors such as walking, feeding or interacting with pen mates. To evaluate

the reliability of animal activity measurements using PIR detectors, a continuous measurement

of animal activity was performed in one pen of a weaner room on a pig farm. Simultaneously,

weaner behavior was recorded by video camera in order to perform a visual assessment of the

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level of activity. Visual estimation was used as a reference method and the data obtained with

both measurement methods were compared to define data quality and agreement.

2.1 Animal and housing

A 3.2 x 3.2 m2 pen that housed 50 pigs weaned at 21 days of age was chosen for measurements.

The piglets, which were Large White x Landrace hybrids, entered the room on February 27,

2017 and exited the room on April 6, 2017. The pen belonged to a room of a commercial pig

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farm located in Northwest Spain, as described by Besteiro et al. (2017). The pen (Fig. 1),

composed of PVC divider panels 0.7 m in height, had fully slatted floors and a 3.2 x 0.5 m2

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heating plate, under a PVC roof placed at a height of 0.7 m. Piglets were fed ad-libitum in a

double humid hopper shared by two pens and water was supplied with a nipple drinker placed

close to the feeder. US

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2.2 Passive infrared detector measurements

Any body with a temperature above absolute zero emits infrared radiation, which is directly
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related to body temperature. Based on this principle, PIR sensors detect body movements within
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a specific region based on the changes caused by moving bodies in the amount of radiation

emitted per unit area. Such changes are detected by PIR sensors, which use a sensor with
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pyroelectric properties connected with two electrodes and a load between the electrodes to

generate an induced charge that flows through the load like current (Kimura et al., 2012). This
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current is further analyzed until a signal that can be identified as motion is obtained.

2.2.1 Data acquisition

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Most commercial sensors provide a digital output that indicates the activity detected by the

sensor. However, Pedersen and Pedersen (1995) quantified animal activity by converting the

signal irregular waveform pulses into an analogue signal, not using the final part of the circuit in

the sensor, which yielded a digital signal. Thus, after processing the AC analogue signal by

wave rectification followed by averaging, the signal activity was stored in a conventional data

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logger. Currently, most authors use the analogue output of the sensor, reproducing the original

method or adding slight modifications to signal post processing and analysis (Ngwabie et al.,

2011; Ni et al., 2017; Nielsen et al., 2003).

However, this paper analyzes the time during which the digital signal of the sensor is activated

as the unit of measurement of animal activity, which simplifies the method. The simplification

proposed here considerably reduces the complexity in the use of PIR detectors and improves

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accessibility for the interested actors.

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An OPTEX RX-40QZ sensor with an input voltage of 12 VDC and a normally closed (NC)

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relay output was used. The output was activated for 2.5 s when the alarm condition was reached,

i.e. when the sensor detected activity. The alarm condition was reached when the sensor

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computed 4 triggers in 20 s. Therefore, the method proposed in this paper to quantify animal

activity consisted in computing the time during which the alarm was activated for a period. This
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activity time was totaled and stored by a data logger at 10-min intervals (Campbell Scientific

Ltd. CR-10X).
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Because the data logger admitted an input voltage of only 5 V DC, a normally closed relay was
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used to adapt the power of the alarm output to the data logger requirements. The data logger

recorded the PIR detector alarm time with 0.125 s accuracy.

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2.2.2 Sensor location

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Sensor location is one of the factors that most affects the correct performance of PIR detectors.

In this study, the optimal location of the sensor for measuring the activity of the animals in the
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pen was previously determined based on pen size, shape, distribution and equipment, and on the

technical characteristics of the PIR detector. Based on these parameters, the optimal location for

the PIR detector was the angle opposite to the feeder (Fig. 1) at 0.8 m height and 45º orientation

with respect to pen divisions.

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This location was chosen for three main reasons: 1) the maximum surface detection coverage

was 12 x 12 m2 at an angle of 85º, and, therefore, a single sensor left an uncovered angle of only

2.5º at each side of the sensor, which accounted for less than 0.18 m width at the most remote

point; 2) PIR sensors better detect transverse movements with respect to their orientation, and

the main movements during the period with low levels of activity occurred between the heating

plate and the feeder, which was the optimal direction for the sensor; 3) there was a roof over the

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heating plate that limited the position and height for sensor installation.

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2.3. Human observation

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A video camera (QVIS® Zeus Lite LX) was placed over the PIR detector for a continuous

recording of the behavior of animals during the whole cycle in such a way that the camera

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covered the same area as the PIR detector. Human observation (HO) of the recordings was the

reference method for the determination of the level of activity. Observations were made at a rate
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of one frame every two minutes, 24 hours a day (Ott et al., 2014; Sommavilla et al., 2011). In

addition, to analyze the effect of animal weight on the quality of PIR detector measurements,
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two consecutive days at the beginning of the cycle (29 and 30 days of age with an average body
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mass of 7.84 kg) and two consecutive days at the second half of the cycle (51 and 52 days of

age with an average body mass of 14.89 kg) were randomly chosen, and 2866 frames were
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analyzed (data for 26 minutes of the second day at the beginning of the cycle were lost because

of a failure in electric power supply). To complete this process and in order to reduce human
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interpretation errors, authors had set the main activities to register. Then, the observer

designated was trained with a bank of images to homogenize the activity classification
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according to the authors interpretation.

The level of activity was determined as the percentage of animals performing a behavioral

activity that could be classified as feeding (eating or drinking) (Debreceni et al., 2014; Villagrá

et al., 2007) or playing (e.g., walking, fighting, playing). The rest of the animals were

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considered to be inactive. Finally, the average percentage at 10-min intervals was calculated in

order to compare the measurements performed with both methods.

2.3. Statistical Analysis

Activity data was analyzed using R statistical language, Rstudio environment (R Core Team,

2016; RStudio. Team, 2016) and their respective statistical packages. For a graphical

representation and interpretation of results, data series were scaled to the [0,1] range. In

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addition, the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test was used to assess data normality.

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To measure the agreement between PIR detector measurements and HO measurements, we first

analyzed the correlations by using Spearman’s rho (ρ). However, measuring the agreement

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between two variables requires the assessment of both precision and accuracy. For this purpose,

the Concordance Correlation Coefficient (CCC) proposed by Lin (1989) combines both
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measures into a single coefficient. The CCC has emerged as one of the best measures of

agreement between two methods of measuring the same continuous variable. The value of this
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coefficient ranges between 0 and ±1, and perfect agreement is reached when the data fall on a

1:1 line and CCC = 1. One of the most widespread interpretations of this coefficient suggests
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that the limit for a sufficiently good strength of agreement is a value of 0.9 (McBride, 2005).

Yet, this value has been arbitrarily chosen and it has been used mainly for chemical analysis
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methods.
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In this paper, we used the CCC approximated by the U-Statistic method (King and Chinchilli,

2001), available in the R statistical package by Carrasco and Martinez (2015), because of its
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increased robustness for non-normal data as compared to the original technique. In addition, the

plot proposed by Bland and Altman (1986) was used for graphical analysis of the differences

between both methods.

3. Results

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A visual comparison of the results obtained by the two analyzed methods provided a general

overview of the behavior of measurements. As shown in Fig. 2, the results obtained by both

methods were very similar, but some differences were found depending on the sampling day.

The Kolmogorov-Smirnov test suggested a non-normal distribution of the measured values,

which could not be normalized using any transformation because of the strong asymmetry in the

distributions. Accordingly, non-parametric techniques were used. The differences shown in Fig.

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2 were evidenced by the differences among the values of the Spearman’s correlation coefficient

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for the four analyzed days (Table 1). High correlation values were obtained for the first two

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days (ρ = 0.94), whereas the lowest, yet significant, correlation values (p<0.001), were obtained

for the following days. The value of correlation for the whole dataset was 0.90 (p<0.001).

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Table 1: Statistical analysis of activity data measured by PIR detector and human observation
during postweaning.
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Age (days) ρ CCC
29 0.94* 0.94
30 0.96* 0.89
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51 0.66* 0.74
52 0.82* 0.74
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Weight (kg)
7.84 0.94* 0.91
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14.89 0.74* 0.74

Total 0.90* 0.86+
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*p < 0.001. + (CI 95%: 0.85; 0.88)

The behavior of CCC values, which considered both the precision and the accuracy of the
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measurements, was similar to the behavior suggested by correlation analysis, with a higher

strength of agreement for younger weaners. However, for older weaners, CCC provided a more

similar strength of agreement (0.74) than the ρ coefficient. The CCC value for the whole dataset

was 0.86.

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Figure 3 shows the results of the Bland-Altman plot for the whole set of differences between

PIR detector activity levels and HO activity levels. On average, the PIR method tended to

estimate 2.59% more activity than the HO method (CI 0.95= 1.63% ─ 3.56%). In addition, the

agreement between the methods decreased with the increase in the level of activity, insofar as

differences exceeding the mean ± 2*SD limit occurred with high levels of activity. The

distribution of the differences came considerably near a normal distribution, in spite of being

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slightly skewed to the left.

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The correlations between the animal activity measured with the PIR detector and the types of

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activities (feed and other) observed during daytime and at night allowed for the analysis of PIR

detector measurement quality based on those parameters (Table 2). For the whole cycle, the

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correlations between the PIR detector method and the HO method for each activity showed very

similar values (0.85 and 0.88 for feeding and other activities, respectively). However, for the
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ages of 59 and 60 days, the correlation values were lower and the PIR detection of the feeding

activity was poorer than the detection of the playing activity. In addition, the correlations
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between PIR detector and HO were stronger at night than during daytime (0.88 and 0.78

respectively).
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Table 2: Spearman’s correlation (r) between weaner activity measured with PIR detector and
human observation (HO) according to type of activity, level of activity (median HO=0.24), and
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daytime (08:00 to 19:00) or nighttime during postweaning.

Age (days)
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Activity Total
29 30 51 52
Type Feeding 0.85* 0.92* 0.92* 0.55* 0.68*
Playing 0.88* 0.91* 0.93* 0.71* 0.83*
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> 0.24 0.66* 0.63* 0.83* 0.52* 0.60*

Level
< 0.24 0.83* 0.86* 0.84* 0.50* 0.50*
Time Day 0.78* 0.86* 0.85* 0.65* 0.60*
Night 0.88* 0.83* 0.90* 0.54* 0.66*

*p < 0.001.

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The correlation between playing and feeding was strong (ρ = 0.85), but decreased with the

growth of weaners, with values of 0.90-0.86 for days 29 and 30 that decreased to values of 0.80

and 0.77 for days 51 and 52. Total activity showed strong correlations with the playing and

feeding components, with values of 0.95 and 0.94, respectively.

4. Discussion

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Quantifying animal activity can be essential in the design of new control systems for

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postweaning livestock buildings. The activity patterns obtained by using a PIR detector with a

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digital signal or by processing the analogue signal are very similar, as suggested by the patterns

determined in previous research (Besteiro et al., 2017). In addition, the animal activity pattern

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recorded by the digital signal of PIR detectors in groups of animals is similar to the pattern

obtained by human observations (Fig. 2). In this study, significant correlations (p < 0.001) have
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been found between both methods for the 4 analyzed days, which is in agreement with the

results obtained for suckling piglets by Puppe et al. (1999), who found significant correlations
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between human observations and a PIR system. Yet, Puppe et al. (1999) used a considerably
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different method that measured the activity of a single animal in open field conditions with

various sensors. Likewise, Langbein et al. (1996) studied the activity of free-ranging mouflons
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and found significant correlations between the values obtained by a PIR-based system and the

time spent by the mouflons at a specific location.

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The results obtained by Ott et al. (2014) for the comparison of automated video analysis and
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human observations of the behavioral activities of pigs showed a correlation value of ρ = 0.92,

which was similar to the value reported in this study. Therefore, both automated video analysis

and PIR detector measurements allow for the estimation of the level of activity in groups of

animals. In this sense, Nielsen (2003) has suggested that PIR detectors are more accurate and

less time-consuming in detecting subtle movements in grouped birds. However, these two

methods should be tested using new video analysis techniques, which would be essential in

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order to compare the current performance and results of both techniques (Nasirahmadi et al.,

2017).

The value obtained in this study for CCC is 0.86 (Table 1), which comes near the value of 0.9

that suggests an almost perfect strength of agreement according to McBride (2005). Yet, this

value has been arbitrarily determined and it has been used mainly in chemical analysis methods

that differ substantially from animal behavior analysis. In our study, the units of measurement

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used to quantify the same variable are totally different (% active animals against time of

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activity), and perfect agreement is not required. For this reason, the value of CCC obtained here

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has been considered sufficiently high to suggest substantial agreement between both methods.

Higher values of ρ and CCC were obtained for younger weaners, i.e. for weaners with a lower

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kg/m2 ratio. This can be due to the larger area occupied by larger weaners, which create a

background with a higher and more homogeneous temperature. These conditions affect the
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detection capacity of the sensors (Ni et al., 2017) because the signal of PIR detectors is

proportional to the difference in temperature between the bodies and the background (Pedersen
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and Pedersen, 1995). Similarly, animal size and density affect the decrease in the quality of
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measurements from automated video analysis because automated video analysis is also

dependent on contrast between floor and pig surface (Kashiha et al., 2014).
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In contrast, animal size and density did not affect intense activity, which was detected better by
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the PIR sensor than by human observation (Fig. 2). The activity of heavier animals was more

easily detected by PIR detectors because the intensity of the signal of PIR detectors was related
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to the number of active animals, to longer and more intense movements, and to movements of

larger animals (Ni et al., 2017). However, visual techniques did not consider the weight of the

animals, but only the proportion of animals. Moreover, because the minimum duration of

detected activity was 2.5 s, shorter activities could be overestimated. As a result, the PIR

detector overestimated animal activity by 2.59%, on average, as compared to human

observation (Fig. 3). Also, there are some differences between PIR and HO levels of activity

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when it is supposed almost no activity, according to the HO. It is probably due to the frequency

rate of HO, set in 2 minutes. Therefore, slight activities that occurred between two consecutive

observation, were no detected by HO.

All these parameters affected the measurements of the different activities. For young weaners,

the feeding behavior had the same effect on the measured activity as the playing behavior

(Table 2). At young ages, there was a strong correlation between the observed playing and

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feeding activities and the activity measured by the PIR detector, i.e. weaners moved mainly to

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reach the feeder. In contrast, as weaners grew, the correlation for the playing and feeding

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behaviors decreased, and playing involved a more intense activity which was developed nearer

the sensor, which could hide the feeding behaviors. As a result, PIR detector measurements

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showed a stronger correlation with playing activities. This is in agreement with automated video

analysis, which shows the same drawback when movements do not involve many changes in
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image pixels (Ott et al., 2014).

The lower activity levels observed at night have a beneficial effect on PIR detector
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measurements (CIGR, 2002; Villagrá et al., 2007), insofar as the problems caused by animal
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overlapping disappear. In addition, temperatures inside and outside the room are usually lower

at night, such that the difference between body temperature and background temperature is
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higher, which involves an increase in the intensity of the signal. At night, the value for the level

of activity was < 0.24 (Table 2), although such value was at some point largely exceeded.
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Therefore, the correlations for the two levels of activity analyzed here are consistent with the

correlations for the activity levels recorded at day and at night.

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5. Conclusions

Currently, PIR detectors are widely used for quantifying the levels of animal activity, as

revealed by the current literature. In this paper, the performance of a PIR detector that used its

digital signal was assessed against human observation of a group of weaned piglets. We

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conclude that placing PIR detectors at an angle of the pen, transversely with respect to the main

theoretical line of animal movement (feeder – heating plate) allows for precise and accurate

measurement of activity in groups of animals.

The animal activity values obtained suggest substantial agreement between both methods, with

a Concordance Correlation Coefficient of 0.86 and a Spearman’s correlation coefficient of 0.90.

Such values are sufficiently good, considering that the analyzed measurement methods are

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dissimilar and that the analyzed methods measured relative activity.

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Under the installation conditions tested in this study, the PIR detector tends to overestimate the

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level of activity by 2.59%, as compared to human observations, and the differences between

both methods increase with the increase in the level of activity. For this reason, night

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measurements are more precise. Moreover, animal weight affects the measurement capacity of

PIR detectors, which perform better during the first weeks after weaning. Actually, the feeding
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activities, which are less intense, lose their influence on PIR detector measurements only when

the weight of weaners increases

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6. Acknowledgments
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The authors are grateful to the regional government Xunta de Galicia for funding this research

through the “Program of consolidation and structuring of competitive research units”

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(GPC2014/072).
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Figure captions

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Fig. 1: General plan view of the room and detail of the pen where animal activity was measured.
a) PIR and Video Camera, b) feeder, c) drinker, d) cover, e) heating plate.
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Fig. 2: Animal activity quantified in weaners during postweaning at a) 29 days, b) 30 days, c)

51 days and d) 52 days of age using PIR detector (──) and human observation (– – ).

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Fig. 3: Bland-Altman plot for the differences in measurements of weaner activity between PIR
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detector and human observation (HO).
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