Development of serum Vitamin A sensor for fattening cattle and precision livestock management based on regional strategy

2019 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 17H01500
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (A)
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Agricultural environmental engineering/Agricultural information engineering
• Research Institution: Kyoto University
• Principal Investigator: Kondo Naoshi 京都大学, 農学研究科, 教授 (20183353)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): 鈴木 哲仁 京都大学, 農学研究科, 助教 (00723115)
• Project Period (FY): 2017-04-01 – 2020-03-31
• Keywords: 牛肉 / コンピュータビジョン / 精密畜産

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Controlling serum Vitamin A level (VA) is an important practice in Japanese Black Cattle livestock farmars to increase BMS (Beef Marbling Standard). To estimate VA, image of cattle eyes was captured. A special camera was made for each stall that could get pupil image and fundus image by controlling LED lights. Each camera was set at the drinking place and images were captured through a grass window when cattle were drinking. VA was estimated by extracting image features and by multivariate analysis.

Free Research Field

生物センシング工学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

肉牛では最も重要な情報であるVAのモニタリング技術が確立されてないこと，粗飼料の成分にバラツキがあること等の理由より，未だに農家の経験と勘を頼りに管理されており，情報化が乳牛に比べても遅れている。採血して血液検査を業者に依頼してでVAを測定することも行われているが，採血と悦液検査に手間と費用を要する。この研究は目の画像から非侵襲でVAを推定するものであり，精密畜産に貢献するものである。