Abstract
The automatic detection, counting and tracking of individual and flocked
chickens in the poultry industry is of paramount to enhance farming
productivity and animal welfare. Due to methodological difficulties,
such as the complex background of images, varying lighting conditions,
and occlusions from e.g., feeding stations, water nipple stations and
barriers in the chicken rearing production floor, it is a challenging
task to automatically recognize and track birds using computer software.
Here, a deep learning model based on You Only Look Once (Yolov5) is
proposed for detecting domesticated chickens from videos with varying
complex backgrounds. A multiscale feature is being adapted to the Yolov5
network for mapping modules in the counting and tracking of the
trajectories of the chickens. The Yolov5 network was trained and tested
on our dataset which resulted in an enhanced tracking precision
accuracy. Using Kalman Filter, the proposed model was able to track
multiple chickens simultaneously with the focus to associate individual
chickens across the frames of the video for real time and online
applications. By being able to detect the chickens amid diverse
background interference and counting them precisely along with tracking
the movement and measuring their travelled path and direction, the
proposed model provides excellent performance for on-farm applications.
Artificial intelligence enabled automatic measurements of chicken
behavior on-farm using cameras offers continuous monitoring of the
chicken’s ability to perch, walk, interact with other birds and the farm
environment, as well as the assessment of dustbathing, thigmotaxis, and
foraging frequency, which are important indicators for their ability to
express natural behaviors. This study highlights the potential of
automated monitoring of poultry through the usage of ChickTrack model as
a digital tool in enabling science-based animal husbandry practices and
thereby promote positive welfare for chickens in animal farming.