I don’t know about you, but I think the source of my bacon should be in a good mood. Apparently, a group of European scientists agrees.
But unlike me, these scientists decided to actually do something about it.
Researchers from universities in Denmark, Germany, Switzerland, France, Norway and the Czech Republic developed an artificial intelligence (AI) algorithm capable of interpreting pig sounds, aiming to create a tool that can help farmers improve animal welfare.
To develop the algorithm, they used thousands of recorded pig sounds in different scenarios, including play, isolation, and competition for food. The goal was to find grunts, oinks, and squeals revealing positive or negative emotions.
The algorithm showed that pigs kept in outdoor, free-range, or organic farms with the ability to roam and dig in the dirt produced fewer stress calls than conventionally raised pigs.
Elodie Mandel-Briefer, a behavioral biologist at University of Copenhagen who is co-leading the study, commented, “Emotions of animals are central to their welfare, but we don’t measure it much on farms.” She added, “Once we have the tool working, farmers can have an app on their phone that can translate what their pigs are saying in terms of emotions.”
Once again, we can thank AI, which allowed the researchers to both process the huge amount of sounds they recorded and to classify them automatically.
But I want to know whether happy pigs do indeed produce better bacon.