Publications
Langford, J., Fawcett, T.W., Price, E., Bradley, D.; Wilson, A.J., & Croft, D.P. (2024). Bio-logging reveals heritable patterns of natural behaviours in sheep. Acta IMEKO, 13(1).
Welfare assessment of extensively managed livestock can be supported by bio-logging accelerometry to collect continuous behavioural data over long periods while are in their normal physical environment. The repeatability and heritability of daily phenotypic profiles reveal the daily patterns of behaviour in sheep and how these are influenced by physical environment and genetics.
Lewis, K.E.; Price, E.; Croft, D.P.; Green, L.E.; Ozella, L.; Cattuto, C.; & Langford, J. (2023). Potential role of biologgers to automate detection of lame ewes and lambs. Applied Animal Behaviour Science, 105847.
Lameness is an important health, welfare and economic problem in sheep flocks and early treatment is key to controlling lameness. Biologging accelerometer data to identify lame sheep and lambs through behavioural changes: lame ewes stood less, spent less time grazing and were more inactive than non-lame ewes; lame lambs also stood less and were more inactive than non-lame lambs; and lambs with severely lame dams were also more inactive than those with non-lame dams.
Lewis, K.E.; Price, E.; Croft, D.P.; Langford, J; Ozella, L.; Cattuto, C.; & Green, L.E. (2022). Social behaviour and transmission of lameness in a flock of ewes and lambs. Frontiers in Veterinary Science, 1027020.
Sheep have heterogenous social connections that influence transmission of some infectious diseases. High resolution proximity sensors were deployed to assess transmission of Dichelobacter nodosus. Most transmission of lameness is not attributable to close contact. However, in ewes with young lambs, some transmission occurs within families and is likely due to time spent in close contact, since single lambs spent more time with their dam than twin lambs and were more likely to become lame
Price, E., Langford, J., Fawcett, T.W., Wilson, A.J., & Croft, D.P. (2022). Classifying the posture and activity of ewes and lambs using accelerometers and machine learning on a commercial flock. Applied Animal Behaviour Science, 105630.
Animal phenotype information is needed in commercial flocks to effectively manage welfare and production, including lameness, senescence, resilience to environmental conditions and to enable early on-farm decision making. Accelerometers deployed at a key point in the annual production cycle (lambing) yeilded classifiers able to predict posture with > 80% accuracy and physical activity with > 70% accuracy.
Ozella, L., Price, E., Langford, J., Lewis, K., Cattuto, C., & Croft D.P. (2022). Association networks and social temporal dynamics in ewes and lambs. Applied Animal Behaviour Science, 105515.
Sheep are highly social domesticated animals that evolved to live in large and structured groups. Identifying the conditions that influence the social stability within a flock and at individual level is critically important to implement management and productivity strategies in commercial farms, such as changes in the composition of animal groups, reduction of flock density, and identification of optimal size of field.
Ozella, L., Langford, J., Gauvin, L., Price, E., Cattuto, C., & Croft, D. P. (2020). The effect of age, environment and management on social contact patterns in sheep. Applied Animal Behaviour Science, 104964.
Social structures of group-living farm animals can have important implications for animal welfare and productivity. Understanding which factors can have an effect on social behaviour is thus important in order to develop the best management strategies in livestock industries.