• Title: “Behaviors of dairy goats in an enriched environment: Behavioral signatures associated with improved welfare through sensor data and machine learning analysis” ; INRAE.
  • Postdoctoral researcher: Mathilde Valenchon.
  • Affiliation: INRAE, RPC.
  • Supervision:
    • Masoomeh Taghipoor (INRAE).

Project Summary:

Behavior is a key element in assessing animal welfare. There are analytical models to automatically and dynamically characterize many behaviors using sensors (accelerometers) and digital tools. A comprehensive approach, integrating sensor use, observations, and behavioral tests, is necessary to validate these digital tools for welfare assessment, particularly for its improvement. This interdisciplinary project integrating Ethology, Modeling, and Artificial Intelligence (AI) will demonstrate the existence of behavioral profiles (signatures) associated with improved welfare, detectable using precision livestock farming tools. This is of great interest for evaluating the perception of goats in uncontrolled environments related to the agroecological transition of farms.
Objectives:

• Establish an experimental setup to monitor dairy goat behaviors in an enriched environment (welfare improvement) and digitally characterize the behavioral signature associated with improved welfare using sensor data and machine learning analysis.

Methodologies:

• Conduct parallel behavioral observations and tests.
• Validate the digital characterization of welfare improvement.