Page 10 - Australian Pork Newspaper

Pig grunts reveal emotions
n Researchers analysed more than 7000 audio recordings
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ACCORDING to re- search from the Univer- sity of Copenhagen in Denmark, it is now pos- sible to decode pig emo- tions by translating pig grunts.
The research is led by the University of Copen- hagen, the ETH Zurich and France’s National Re- search Institute for Agri- culture, Food and Envi- ronment, and can be used to improve animal welfare in future.
published in Scientific Re- ports.
from when they are born until their deaths.
In experimental stables, the researchers also cre- ated various mock sce- narios for the pigs, de- signed to evoke more nuanced emotions in the middle of the spectrum.
Using thousands of acoustic recordings gath- ered throughout the lives of pigs, from their births to deaths, an international team of researchers has learned to translate pig grunts into actual emo- tions across an extended number of conditions and life stages.
In a new study, an in- ternational team of re- searchers from Denmark, Switzerland, France, Germany, Norway and the Czech Republic have translated pig grunts into emotions.
Using more than 7000 audio recordings of pigs, the researchers designed an algorithm that can decode whether an indi- vidual pig is experiencing a positive emotion such as ‘happy’ or ‘excited’, a negative one such as ‘scared’ or ‘stressed’, or somewhereinbetween.
University of Copen- hagen Department of Bi- ology Associate Professor Elodie Briefer said, “With this study, we demon- strate that animal sounds provide great insight into their emotions.”
These included an arena with toys or food and a corresponding arena without any stimuli.
The findings have been
The researchers re- corded pig sounds in both commercial and experi- mental scenarios which, based on the behaviour of the pigs, are either associ- ated with a positive and negative emotion.
Along the way, the pigs’ calls, behaviour and heart- rates were monitored and recorded when possible.
An algorithm can be used to decode and understand the emotions of pigs, which is an important step towards improved animal welfare for livestock.
At the same time, low- frequency calls such as barks and grunts occurred both in situations where the pigs experienced posi- tive or negative emotions.
The recordings were col- lected in a wide range of situations encountered by commercial pigs – both positive and negative –
“We also prove that an algorithm can be used to decodeandunderstandthe emotions of pigs, which is an important step towards improved animal welfare for livestock.”
The researchers also placednewandunfamiliar objects in the arena for the pigs to interact with.
Positive situations in- cluded for example those when piglets suckle from their mothers or when they are reunited with their family after being separated.
The researchers then an- alysed the more than 7000 audio recordings to see if there was a pattern in the sounds as a function of the emotions, and if they could discern the positive situations and emotions from the negative ones.
The emotionally nega- tive situations included, among others, separation, fights between piglets, castration and slaughter.
As already revealed in previous research, the re- searchers collected more high-frequency calls such as screams and squeals in negative situations.
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The situations between the extremes were particu- larly interesting.
With an even more thor- ough analysis of the sound files, the researchers found a new pattern that revealed what the pigs experienced in certain situations in even greater detail.
“There are clear differ- ences in pig calls when we look at positive and nega- tive situations,” Assoc Prof Elodie Briefer said.
“In the positive situ- ations, the calls are far shorter with minor fluc- tuations in amplitude.
“Grunts more cifically begin high and gradually go lower in fre- quency.
“By training an algo- rithm to recognise these sounds, we can classify 92 percent of the calls to the correct emotion.”
The study of animal emotions is a relatively new field that has come about over the past 20 years.
Today, it is widely ac- cepted that the mental health of livestock is im- portant for their overall well-being.
Nevertheless, today’s animal welfare focusses primarily on the physical health of livestock.
Indeed, several systems exist that can automati- cally monitor an animal’s physical health for a farmer.
“We have trained the algorithm to decode pig grunts,” Assoc Prof El- odie Briefer said.
“Now, we need someone who wants to develop the algorithm into an app that farmers can use to im- prove the welfare of their animals.”
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Page 10 – Australian Pork Newspaper, April 2022
She added that with enough data to train the al- gorithm, the method could also be used to better un- derstand the emotions of other mammals.
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