Infrared thermography and behaviour information for identification of biologically important states in animals

An automated method for use in determining thermal responses of individual animals within a group of animals, the method comprising:

• identifying an individual animal within the group of animals within an enclosure, wherein the identifying includes using a reading device to read signals generated by an electronic tag attached to the individual animal, and wherein the read signals comprise animal identification information,
• photographing the identified animal to obtain infrared thermography images about the identified animal within the group of animals, each image providing a plurality of pixelated data points, wherein the photographing includes using at least one camera positioned about the enclosure to automatically obtain the infrared thermography images,
• processing the pixelated data points in each image together with the animal identification information to determine both temperature information about the identified animal, and clustering information about the identified animal, the clustering information being quantified from the pixelated data points by tracing heat outlines of the animals to generate a score indicative of spatial distributions of the animals within the images, and
• processing the temperature information and the clustering information about the identified animal to detect a thermal response in the identified animal, wherein the thermal response of the identified animal is an early indicator of biological states in the identified animal, and wherein the biological states comprise a disease state, a non-steady state growth period, the onset of puberty, or the onset of estrus.