Modeling of ambient environment and thermal status relationship of pig's body in a pig barn

An experiment was conducted to evaluate the performance of temperature model (T model), relative humidity model (H model), temperature-humidity model (TH model) and temperature-humidity index model (THI model) in predicting pig's body surface temperature (PBT). Infrared Sensor (IR) was used to measure PBT at different locations: left side (LS), right side (RS), forehead (FH) and back side (BS). Ambient environmental parameters inside the room such as temperature (ART), relative humidity (RRH) and CO₂ concentration were measured using livestock environment management system (LEMS). THI model was selected as the best model in making more accurate prediction in both training (R²=0.72, RMSE=0.80, RSE=0.26 and MAPE=2.08) and validation (R²=0.74, RMSE=1.10, RSE=0.40 and MAPE=2.80) stages. For more precise modeling, apart from temperature and humidity data other environmental factors inside pig's barn (CO₂ concentration, wind speed, air pressure etc.) as well as growth factors (body weight, feed intake etc.) may be included in models.