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WELF ▶▶▶ARE


Measuring animal emotions – and why it matters


Humans can communicate by speaking, writing or gesturing and also have faces that usually portray how they feel. What if the emotions of farm animals could also be interpreted accurately through their communication, faces and body language? An effort to do just this is being made at Wageningen University & Research in the Netherlands.


BY SURESH NEETHIRAJAN, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR, WAGENINGEN UNIVERSITY & RESEARCH, THE NETHERLANDS


T


To discern an an- imal’s emotional state, a tremen- dous amount of gathered data has to be ana- lysed and the correct comput- er algorithm used to develop proper software.


38 ▶ DAIRY GLOBAL | Volume 8, No. 2, 2021


echnology continues to expand into all facets of life, and the Internet of Things is poised to cross the boundary between humans and animals. Someone can track their pet dog or cat instantaneously with a


chip and a smartphone, but it’s also becoming increasingly possible to read a farm animal’s whereabouts and even emotion without any invasive procedure.


Until now, sensors and probes have been used to measure vi- tal statistics of animals, but these have meant putting an ani- mal through a procedure that itself causes stress. In the fu- ture, non-invasive measures will use sensors that identify individual animals by detecting facial features and process any data, and results will be sent to a smartphone. When that becomes possible, a veterinarian or farmer could quickly detect the emotional state of animals.


What is emotion? First of all, emotion itself needs defining. It’s regarded in sci- ence as how the brain processes neuropsychological events through physiological, behavioural and cognitive stimuli for any particular individual or complex organism. Such stimuli are instantly translated for that organism into a positive or negative experience. The reaction determines the appropri- ate response for that organism at that moment – to stay, fight or flee. Human faces are easily read for a reaction from an ex- perience, but animal faces are considerably more challenging. To assist in interpreting physiological changes and general welfare of an animal, certain chemical markers can be meas- ured. For example, the cortisol level in pig saliva is used to de- termine changing stress levels. In cattle, a change in neuro- transmitting chemicals is detected as the animal experiences various stimuli. However, such measurements are conducted by interfering with the animal, which causes stress, and it can take precious time to produce the findings.


A facial sensor What if an animal’s face could be read like a human’s? A sen- sor capable of detecting all the variances of animal faces has not yet been developed. In the interim, a variety of sensors are used to measure various components and parables. Such tools incorporate infrared thermal imaging, sound recordings, GPS tracking and drones. However, none of these are totally satisfactory by themselves and they all have their individual shortcomings in data collection. The quest is on among scien- tists to find a sensor that detects the smallest facial tick. In turn, such observable movements will be matched to what the animal is feeling at the time.


PHOTO: MARK PASVEER


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