Preliminary Acoustic Analysis of Farm Management Noise and its Impact on Broiler Welfare

The farm management practices done by machinery generates a high acoustical impact. The possible acoustic variations in terms of equivalent level ($L_{eq}$) and type of noise can cause stress to the animals, which can affect the well-being of broilers reducing the food and water ingest. In this work, we conduct a preliminary analysis of the acoustical impact generated by the farm management in a intensive broiler poultry farm of 25.000 birds. The raw sound is recorded during the first two weeks of the birds life, focusing the study on the first week. To create the dataset we randomly select some files from each day of the study and they are analysed and labelled manually using an audio analysis software. The acoustical events studied are fan, food, water supply and background noise with broiler singing, based on duration, impact and Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR). The analysis conculdes that the main acoustical pollution source in a broilers' farm is fan, and that it has an elevate acoustical impact. Nevertheless, the most frequent acoustical noise source active is food supply, but with less $L_{eq}$ impact.