Instrumented pig gait analysis: State-of-the-art

There are 2 main reasons why pig gait is analysed. First, assessment of a pig's health and welfare is major reason for gait analysis. Also, the pig, as a large animal model, has become important in biomedical research, especially in preclinical testing of therapeutics. Gait is an essential part of pig movement and its analysis is of great interest, especially when following the phenotype and the effectivity of treatment in pig models for movement and neurological disorders. The aim of this state-of-the-art review is 3-fold: (1) to present and summarize the current instrument base used in pig gait assessment, (2) to point out promising technologies for pig gait analysis, and (3) to outline the suitability of technology for pig gait analysis. The review encompasses 27 studies in total. We included papers published since 2010 and classified them according to which type of measurement instrument was used: 2D camera systems, 3D camera systems, force plates and pressure sensitive mats. In each category we reviewed the data acquisition systems, utilized signals and gait parameters used. An analysis of the literature showed that video-based systems and pressure sensitive mats were the most frequently used. The utilization of 3D camera systems was less common. Force plates were only used occasionally. In conclusion, despite growing interest in using inertial sensor units in movement analysis, they were missing in pig gait analysis. Along with the progress in instrumentation and its ability to produce a huge amount of information, simpler and more user-friendly tools should be developed to provide easy interpretation of the data captured by pig practitioners in the pig industry, or by scientists.