Ultrasound Essay
What are Ultrasound Scanners?
Ultrasound has been utilized as a tool in beef and diary research systems for many years, and in more recent yeas has become available to commercial livestock agriculture. An ultrasound is an electronic instrument that sends out ultrasonic waves from an attached device called a transducer. Waves pass freely through fluid and are reflected back to the probe resulting in an image that can be identified as the placenta, fetus, or other organs.
Ultrasound may also be used to determine body fat content on finishing cattle, an it is also an important diagnostic tool for veterinary medicine. Ultrasound can be used to determine pregnancy status, the age of a fetus, and the sex of a fetus. “Additionally ultrasound can accurately determine the presence of a viable embryo as early as 30 days after mating. The accuracy of detecting fetal viability may approach 100% because the user ca visibly identify the viable embryo by the presence of a beating heart.”
The ultrasound provides a more accurate and complete picture of what is going on …show more content…
reproductively, users are therefore able to diagnose pregnancies more accurately and earlier. By combining ultrasound technology and AI, a producer can develop a breeding program that optimises both the maternal and carcass traits, this allows the producers to choose a bull with high maternal traits and use it in an AI system, after this bulls who have been selected for carcass merit can be used for the remainder of the breeding season. They then use the Ultrasound to determine which females are pregnant with AI-sired heifer calves based on the age and sex of the fetus.
Technicians
Technicians use the ultrasound scanner to decipher carcass traits that are looked upon by buyers and the producers themselves, Rump fat (P8), Fat depth 12/13th rib, eye muscle area,Intramuscular fat (IMF).These traits help in selection decisions through EMA, fat thickness and IMF% are three traits that are highly related to retail yield or quality of a beef carcass and they can be measured with a high degree of accuracy by an accredited scanning technician. An ultrasound technician can take images from an ultrasound between the 12th and 13th ribs on the body of an animal destined for slaughter. These images capture intramuscular fat, or marbling, ribeye area, and rib fat which all reflect the quality of the meat. Farmers can use this information determine when the animal is ready to be sold and can help buyers price the animals. Scanning is an expensive technique, generally the fee per animal is $10 to $15, therefore to scan an entire herd with an accredited scanner it can be expensive, to buy an individual scanner it is around $1500.
Advantages
Is the most accurate tool to confirm pregnancy and fetal viability
Is the only tool that can confirm fetal sex and fetal age.
Allows for much earlier detection of pregnancy for a quick response time to rebreed animals.
Reduces risk of fetal death during exams.
Is a very effective tool in herd management to improve overall reproductive efficiency and profitability.
Allows for faster, more accurate, and easier herd pregnancy checks for the practitioner and the animals.
Disadvantages
One of the major limitations of ultrasonic techniques for animal applications was animal movement.
Costly operation
Success is not guaranteed
There are animal welfare implications
Requires a skilled operator
Future
Through the history of the development and applications of ultrasound in animal science, it is evident that ultrasound will play a major role in value-based marketing by providing accurate and objective live animal and carcass evaluations rapidly. The acceptance and use of this technology will increase rapidly. Future ultrasonic systems will need to be small and rugged for portability. Computers and software for automated operations will be required for rapid automated operations on-site as objectivity replaces subjectivity in ultrasonic evaluation of animals and carcasses.
History
The application of ultrasound to animals has had a very close relationship to medical applications, as shown by the first animal evaluation publication in the United States in 1956.1 Back fat thickness was measured on beef cattle at Colorado A & M College, now Colorado State University, with a “somascope” ultrasonic unit previously used by the group led by Douglass Howry, MD, at the University of Colorado Medical Center.
In 1984, my group introduced the use of real-time sonography for body composition evaluation of meat animals. The portability of real-time ultrasonic equipment also facilitated the evaluation of live animals, which generally requires the equipment to be taken to the subject rather than moving the subject to a central evaluation site. The use of portable computers, image grabber cards, and software for rapid and accurate analysis of sonographic images on-site was introduced in the early
1990s.
Ultrasound has been utilized as a tool in beef and diary research systems for many years, and in more recent yeas has become available to commercial livestock agriculture. An ultrasound is an electronic instrument that sends out ultrasonic waves from an attached device called a transducer. Waves pass freely through fluid and are reflected back to the probe resulting in an image that can be identified as the placenta, fetus, or other organs.
Ultrasound may also be used to determine body fat content on finishing cattle, an it is also an important diagnostic tool for veterinary medicine. Ultrasound can be used to determine pregnancy status, the age of a fetus, and the sex of a fetus. “Additionally ultrasound can accurately determine the presence of a viable embryo as early as 30 days after mating. The accuracy of detecting fetal viability may approach 100% because the user ca visibly identify the viable embryo by the presence of a beating heart.”
The ultrasound provides a more accurate and complete picture of what is going on …show more content…
reproductively, users are therefore able to diagnose pregnancies more accurately and earlier. By combining ultrasound technology and AI, a producer can develop a breeding program that optimises both the maternal and carcass traits, this allows the producers to choose a bull with high maternal traits and use it in an AI system, after this bulls who have been selected for carcass merit can be used for the remainder of the breeding season. They then use the Ultrasound to determine which females are pregnant with AI-sired heifer calves based on the age and sex of the fetus.
Technicians
Technicians use the ultrasound scanner to decipher carcass traits that are looked upon by buyers and the producers themselves, Rump fat (P8), Fat depth 12/13th rib, eye muscle area,Intramuscular fat (IMF).These traits help in selection decisions through EMA, fat thickness and IMF% are three traits that are highly related to retail yield or quality of a beef carcass and they can be measured with a high degree of accuracy by an accredited scanning technician. An ultrasound technician can take images from an ultrasound between the 12th and 13th ribs on the body of an animal destined for slaughter. These images capture intramuscular fat, or marbling, ribeye area, and rib fat which all reflect the quality of the meat. Farmers can use this information determine when the animal is ready to be sold and can help buyers price the animals. Scanning is an expensive technique, generally the fee per animal is $10 to $15, therefore to scan an entire herd with an accredited scanner it can be expensive, to buy an individual scanner it is around $1500.
Advantages
Is the most accurate tool to confirm pregnancy and fetal viability
Is the only tool that can confirm fetal sex and fetal age.
Allows for much earlier detection of pregnancy for a quick response time to rebreed animals.
Reduces risk of fetal death during exams.
Is a very effective tool in herd management to improve overall reproductive efficiency and profitability.
Allows for faster, more accurate, and easier herd pregnancy checks for the practitioner and the animals.
Disadvantages
One of the major limitations of ultrasonic techniques for animal applications was animal movement.
Costly operation
Success is not guaranteed
There are animal welfare implications
Requires a skilled operator
Future
Through the history of the development and applications of ultrasound in animal science, it is evident that ultrasound will play a major role in value-based marketing by providing accurate and objective live animal and carcass evaluations rapidly. The acceptance and use of this technology will increase rapidly. Future ultrasonic systems will need to be small and rugged for portability. Computers and software for automated operations will be required for rapid automated operations on-site as objectivity replaces subjectivity in ultrasonic evaluation of animals and carcasses.
History
The application of ultrasound to animals has had a very close relationship to medical applications, as shown by the first animal evaluation publication in the United States in 1956.1 Back fat thickness was measured on beef cattle at Colorado A & M College, now Colorado State University, with a “somascope” ultrasonic unit previously used by the group led by Douglass Howry, MD, at the University of Colorado Medical Center.
In 1984, my group introduced the use of real-time sonography for body composition evaluation of meat animals. The portability of real-time ultrasonic equipment also facilitated the evaluation of live animals, which generally requires the equipment to be taken to the subject rather than moving the subject to a central evaluation site. The use of portable computers, image grabber cards, and software for rapid and accurate analysis of sonographic images on-site was introduced in the early
1990s.