Social network analysis to predict social behavior in dairy cattle

Dairy cattle are frequently housed in freestalls with limited space, affecting social interactions between individuals. Social behavior in dairy cattle is gaining recognition as a valuable tool for identifying sick animals, but its application is hampered by the complexities of analyzing social inte...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: H. Marina, W.F. Fikse, L. Rönnegård
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Elsevier 2024-11-01
Series:JDS Communications
Online Access:http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S266691022400067X
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1846160318766514176
author H. Marina
W.F. Fikse
L. Rönnegård
author_facet H. Marina
W.F. Fikse
L. Rönnegård
author_sort H. Marina
collection DOAJ
description Dairy cattle are frequently housed in freestalls with limited space, affecting social interactions between individuals. Social behavior in dairy cattle is gaining recognition as a valuable tool for identifying sick animals, but its application is hampered by the complexities of analyzing social interactions in intensive housing systems. In this context, precision livestock technologies present the opportunity to continuously monitor dyadic spatial associations on dairy farms. The aim of this study is to evaluate the accuracy of predicting social behavior of dairy cows using social network analysis. Daily social networks were built using the position data from 149 cows over 14 consecutive days of the study period. We applied the separable temporal exponential random graph models to estimate the likelihood of formation and persistence of social contacts between dairy cows individually and to predict the social network on the subsequent day. The correlation between the individual degree centrality values, the number of established social contacts per individual, between the predicted and observed networks ranged from 0.22 to 0.49 when the structural information from network triangles was included in the model. This study presents a novel approach for predicting animal social behavior in intensive housing systems using spatial association information obtained from a real-time location system. The results indicate the potential of this approach as a crucial step toward the larger goal of identifying disruptions in dairy cows' expected social behavior.
format Article
id doaj-art-4fbb02a38797473b9227077b1cf9ad76
institution Kabale University
issn 2666-9102
language English
publishDate 2024-11-01
publisher Elsevier
record_format Article
series JDS Communications
spelling doaj-art-4fbb02a38797473b9227077b1cf9ad762024-11-22T07:39:16ZengElsevierJDS Communications2666-91022024-11-0156608612Social network analysis to predict social behavior in dairy cattleH. Marina0W.F. Fikse1L. Rönnegård2Department of Animal Biosciences, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, SE-750 07 Uppsala, Sweden; Corresponding authorVäxa, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, SE-756 51 Uppsala, SwedenDepartment of Animal Biosciences, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, SE-750 07 Uppsala, Sweden; School of Information and Engineering, Dalarna University, SE-791 88 Falun, Sweden; The Beijer Laboratory for Animal Science, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, SE-750 07 Uppsala, SwedenDairy cattle are frequently housed in freestalls with limited space, affecting social interactions between individuals. Social behavior in dairy cattle is gaining recognition as a valuable tool for identifying sick animals, but its application is hampered by the complexities of analyzing social interactions in intensive housing systems. In this context, precision livestock technologies present the opportunity to continuously monitor dyadic spatial associations on dairy farms. The aim of this study is to evaluate the accuracy of predicting social behavior of dairy cows using social network analysis. Daily social networks were built using the position data from 149 cows over 14 consecutive days of the study period. We applied the separable temporal exponential random graph models to estimate the likelihood of formation and persistence of social contacts between dairy cows individually and to predict the social network on the subsequent day. The correlation between the individual degree centrality values, the number of established social contacts per individual, between the predicted and observed networks ranged from 0.22 to 0.49 when the structural information from network triangles was included in the model. This study presents a novel approach for predicting animal social behavior in intensive housing systems using spatial association information obtained from a real-time location system. The results indicate the potential of this approach as a crucial step toward the larger goal of identifying disruptions in dairy cows' expected social behavior.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S266691022400067X
spellingShingle H. Marina
W.F. Fikse
L. Rönnegård
Social network analysis to predict social behavior in dairy cattle
JDS Communications
title Social network analysis to predict social behavior in dairy cattle
title_full Social network analysis to predict social behavior in dairy cattle
title_fullStr Social network analysis to predict social behavior in dairy cattle
title_full_unstemmed Social network analysis to predict social behavior in dairy cattle
title_short Social network analysis to predict social behavior in dairy cattle
title_sort social network analysis to predict social behavior in dairy cattle
url http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S266691022400067X
work_keys_str_mv AT hmarina socialnetworkanalysistopredictsocialbehaviorindairycattle
AT wffikse socialnetworkanalysistopredictsocialbehaviorindairycattle
AT lronnegard socialnetworkanalysistopredictsocialbehaviorindairycattle