| 研究実績の概要 |
Finding more appropriate and reliable methods for diagnosis of estrus is crucial in dairy farming to reach better reproduction. The purpose of the joint research in Japan was to develop a method to test body fluids (urine, blood, and milk) and blood vessels of dairy cows by means of NIR spectroscopy and aquaphotomics for estrus detection. The method was planned to be adapted to farm conditions and portable devices were planned to be tested by manual operation and also as on-line equipment used in the process of milking.
Spectra collected on blood vessels of cows did not provide practically applicable results. Collection of urine was proven to be unfavorable in the experimental dairy farm, thus, the collection of this sample type has been cancelled. Blood was taken from the investigated cows and blood serum was analyzed. Results were similar to those of milk. Since accuracy of models performed on blood data was lower than the models on milk data, the research was focused on milk data.
It has been shown that NIR spectra of milk provide information on the estrus conditions of cows and the applied model was able to recognize the cows in heat with high accuracy. The achieved results reflect the possibility of the application of the technique in practice as an on-line milk scanning system.
Two manuscripts related to the research topic have been written. One has been published and the other is in the publication process at peer-reviewed scientific journal. Furthermore, the results of the research were presented at international conferences and three Japanese conferences.
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