Efeito do equipamento termovisor sobre as medidas de temperatura superficial de diferentes animais e regiões corporais

Abstract

The study was carried out in order to compare the surface temperature measurements of different animals and body regions, using two thermal imagers, a professional camera (TESTO model 882) and a cell phone (Caterpillar Cat S60) with a FLIR thermal imager attached, thus seeking to validate the technology with the lowest economic cost. To obtain the images, 100 broilers with 32 days of life were used, males distributed in 5 different boxes chosen randomly, in which half of the animals were photographed on a day with mild temperature and the other half on a day with higher temperature. Images of the chest, back and feet (animal with feathers) were recorded concomitantly with the two equipments. Subsequently, images of 12 male cattle were recorded, seven of which were in a shady place and five were released to pasture in direct contact with solar radiation. The points used to obtain the images were the head, flank and hind paw (animal with fur). Ten sheep were used to graze with direct incidence of solar radiation, and the images were recorded on the head, back and hind legs (animal with the presence of wool). Subsequently, the images were analyzed in two different software, IFSoft and Flir Reporte Studio, using circles, rectangles and ellipses in both software to mark the measurement areas, thus obtaining the average temperature of the place. The emissivity used was 0.95 for chickens and 0.98 for cattle and sheep. There was interaction between the thermal imaging equipment used and the place where the surface temperature was evaluated (feathers, skin, wool), however, for cattle and sheep, there was no difference between the place measured for temperature or the type of equipment used. However, for broilers there was the effect of the thermal imager when the measurement site was the feet, noting that the values of surface temperatures were lower when measured by the thermal imager of the cell phone. Regardless of the device used, the surface temperature of the breast of the chickens was higher than the back, which may be correlated to the fact that it is a region without coverage (feathers). The correlation coefficient between surface temperature and thermal imagers tested was 0.96821 (p<0.0001), indicating that the thermal imager attached to the cell phone can be used for the same purpose as the professional thermographic camera, since according to the analysis a positive correlation between the two equipments, except that for broilers, the temperature of the back or breast would be more indicated if using a thermal imager of lesser precision, since the values were similar to those of the professional thermographic.