Integration of technological solutions aims to improve accuracy, precision and repeatability in farming operations, and biosensor devices are increasingly used for understanding basic biology during livestock production. The aim of this study was to design and validate a miniaturized tri-axial accelerometer for non-invasive monitoring of farmed fish with re-programmable schedule protocols.The device was attached to the operculum of gilthead sea bream and European sea bass juveniles for monitoring their physical activity by measurements of movement accelerations in x and y-axes, while records of operculum beats served as a measurement of respiratory frequency. Data post-processing of exercised fish in swimming test chambers revealed an exponential increase of fish accelerations with the increase of fish speed from 1 body-length to 4 body-lengths per second, while a close relationship between oxygen consumption and opercular frequency was consistently found.The usefulness of low computational load for data pre-processing with on-board algorithms was verified from low to submaximal exercise, increasing this procedure the autonomy of the system up to 6 h of data recording with different programmable schedules. Visual observations regarding tissue damage, feeding behavior and circulating levels of stress markers did not reveal at short term a negative impact of device tagging. Reduced plasma levels of triglycerides revealed a transient inhibition of feed intake in small fish, but this disturbance was not detected in larger fish. All this considered together is the proof of concept that miniaturized devices are suitable for non-invasive and reliable metabolic phenotyping of farmed fish to improve their overall performance and welfare. Further work is underway for improving the attachment procedure and the full device packaging.

翻译：技术解决方案的集成旨在提高养殖操作的准确性、精确度和可重复性，生物传感器设备越来越多地被用于理解畜牧生产过程中的基础生物学。本研究旨在设计并验证一种微型三轴加速度计，用于非侵入式监测养殖鱼类，并具备可编程的调度协议。该设备被附着在金头鲷和欧洲鲈鱼幼鱼的鳃盖上，通过测量x轴和y轴上的运动加速度来监测其身体活动量，同时记录鳃盖搏动次数作为呼吸频率的测量指标。对游泳测试水箱中运动鱼类进行数据后处理发现，当鱼的速度从每秒1个身长增加到4个身长时，鱼类的加速度呈指数级增长，同时氧气消耗量与鳃盖频率之间存在密切关系。通过机载算法进行低计算负荷的数据预处理，其有效性在从低强度到次最大强度运动中得到了验证，这一过程将系统的自主性提升至最多6小时的数据记录时间，并支持不同的可编程调度。关于组织损伤、摄食行为和循环压力指标水平的观察并未显示设备标记在短期内产生负面影响。小型鱼血浆中甘油三酯水平的降低表明摄食受到短暂抑制，但这种干扰在大型鱼中未检测到。综合所有结果，这一概念验证表明微型设备适用于养殖鱼类的非侵入式、可靠的代谢表型分析，以提升其整体性能和福利。目前正在进一步改进附着程序及设备的完整封装。