Real-time ultrasound (RTU) imaging methods for quality control of meats

Silva, Severiano; Cadavez, Vasco

doi:10.1533/9780857095770.3.277

Cited by 21 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 200 publications

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“…Also the quantification of the equine body composition using gold standards—dissection and chemical analysis—is not practical as require intensive labour and the animals needs to be euthanized [ 3 , 7 ]. Due to its operational characteristics, the real time ultrasonography (RTU), due to its operative characteristics, has been extensively used in farm animal management to assess body fat reserves [ 8 – 10 ] and was recently extended also to equids [ 2 , 7 ]. RTU presents several advantages: offers a good spatial resolution, is reasonably priced, is well accepted and is easily performed on a standing animal under field conditions [ 2 ].…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…RTU presents several advantages: offers a good spatial resolution, is reasonably priced, is well accepted and is easily performed on a standing animal under field conditions [ 2 ]. Data from multiple studies in different farm species [ 10 – 13 ] validated the precision of ultrasound by comparison to post-mortem subcutaneous fat measurements. However, RTU images require interpretation and sometimes the boundaries between tissues are not obvious [ 14 , 15 ].…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For over 50 years, ultrasound techniques have been used in farm species to predict carcass composition; particularly, RTU has been confirmed in the last two decades as a valuable tool to predict and monitor body composition in living animals [ 10 ] with a few reports already existing in horses [ 7 , 13 , 20 ] and donkeys [ 2 ]. However, the use of RTU to assess fatness in equines is still limited, despite that the equine industry would greatly benefit from the development of imaging approaches capable of quantifying the body fat in living animals [ 3 ].…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Relationships between body condition score and ultrasound skin-associated subcutaneous fat depth in equids

et al. 2016

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BackgroundIn equids, health and welfare depend on body composition. A growing number of equids are now used as leisure and companion animals, and often found overfeed. The need for a close monitoring of body fatness led to the search for tools allowing a rapid and non-invasive estimation of fatness. This study intends to assess real-time ultrasonography (RTU) usefulness in establishing a relationship between ultrasound measures of subcutaneous fat–plus–skin thickness (SF-Skin) and body condition score (BCS) in horses and donkeys. Forty-three healthy animals (16 donkeys and 27 horses) were used in this study to generate 95 records (RTU and BCS pairs), in multiple RTU sessions for 2 years. Using visual appraisal and palpation, BCS was graded in a 1–9 points scale. Real-time ultrasonography images were taken using a 7.5 MHz linear transducer, placed perpendicular to the backbone, over the 3rd lumbar vertebra. ImageJ was used to measure the SF-Skin on RTU images. The relation between BCS and SF-Skin measurements was tested by linear and polynomial regression analysis.ResultsThe BCS values were similar in horses (5.50; from 3 to 8 points) and donkeys (5.14; from 3 to 7 points). The SF-Skin measures show a similar trend (a mean of 7.1 and 7.7 mm in horses and donkeys, respectively). A polynomial regression among BCS and SF-Skin explained 92 and 77 % of the variation in donkeys and horses respectively. The coefficient of determination was considerably higher for the regression developed for donkeys compared with that of horses (R2 = 0.92 vs. 0.77, respectively), which reduced the accuracy of the method in horses. Both the linear and polynomial models tested show a strong relationship among BCS and SF-Skin for donkeys (R2 > 0.91; P < 0.01) and horses (R2 > 0.74; P < 0.01), despite that the extremes for BCS did not existed in our sample.ConclusionsOur results showed the potential RTU usefulness to monitor body fat in equids. Using a high-frequency transducer and RTU together with image analysis allowed the identification of small SF-skin variations. This report will support further studies on the relationships between SF-Skin and BCS, particularly in extreme BCS scores.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Relationships between body condition score and ultrasound skin-associated subcutaneous fat depth in equids

et al. 2016

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“…Otherwise, ultrasonography has demonstrated to be an accepted method for measuring fat reserves in farm species (Silva & Cadavez, 2012) and equids (Gentry et al, 2004) due to its objectivity, repeatability of the technique (Martin-Gimenez et al, 2016), low cost and the possibility of being used in field conditions (Quaresma et al, 2013). Thus, in many species, ultrasonography has also been utilized to validate the condition scoring process (Domecq et al, 1994;Gentry et al, 2004;Alapati et al, 2010;Morfeld et al, 2014) and/or to predict the total fat content using mathematical equations that frequently include some SFT measurement (Westervelt et al, 1976;Kane et al, 1987;Stephenson et al, 1998).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Development of an index based on ultrasonographic measurements for the objective appraisal of body condition in Andalusian horses

Martin‐Giménez

Aguirre-Pascasio

Blas

2018

Span. j. agric. res.

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Body condition scoring (BCS) is an indirect measure of the level of subcutaneous fat; however, by measuring the subcutaneous fat thicknesses (SFT), the precision of the degree of fatness assessment is improved. The aims were: 1) to develop an alternative body fat scoring index (BFSI) based on ultrasonographic measurements; 2) to assess the agreement between BCS and the new index applied to Andalusian horses; 3) to adjust the BCS cut-off values (if necessary) for overweight and obesity in this breed. One hundred and sixtysix Andalusian horses were included in this cross sectional study. On each horse, BCS, body fat percentage (BF%) and ultrasonography of SFT at localized deposits were evaluated. According to BFSI five possible body categories were established. Only one horse (0.6%) was classified as emaciated, 9.0% as thin, 74.7% as normal, 11.4% as overweight and 4.2% as obese. Despite higher BCS and SFT values were observed compared to other breeds, most of the horses evaluated presented a normal body condition under the new BFSI. BCS and BFSI were significantly associated (p<0.001), however, the concordance was low (weighted Cohen's kappa coefficient, 0.262 ± 0.071; p=0.004). Using BFSI, obese horses had significantly greater BF% than the rest of categories (p<0.001). BCS showed a good diagnostic accuracy for detection overweight (AUC = 0.759 ± 0.055; p<0.001) and obese (AUC = 0.878 ± 0.050; p=0.001) horses; redefining the cut-off values for overweight and obesity condition as 7.5/9 and 8.5/9 respectively in Andalusian horses.Additional keywords: ultrasonography; subcutaneous fat deposits; objective score; adiposity; obesity; index. Abbreviations used: AUC (area under the curve); BMI (body mass index); BCS (body condition score); BFSI (body fat scoring index); ROC (receiver operating characteristic curve); SFT (subcutaneous fat thickness); SFT-N25% (SFT over the first third of the neck-length); SFT-N50% (SFT over the second third of the neck-length); SFT-N75% (SFT over the last third of the neck-length); SFT-S (SFT behind the shoulder); SFT-Rb (SFT over the ribs); SFT-R (SFT over the rump); SFT-TH (SFT over the tailhead); BF% (body fat percentage).

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“…To overcome these constraints several in vivo image methodologies have been proposed to get accurate estimates of chemical body composition, such as computer tomography (CT), magnetic resonance imaging, dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry or real-time ultrasound (RTU). These techniques have been reviewed by several authors (Silva and Cadavez, 2012;Scholz et al, 2015). The RTU scanning is already largely used in animal production and is considerably less expensive than other imaging techniques.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ewe whole body composition predicted in vivo by real-time ultrasonography and image analysis

Silva

Afonso²,

Guedes

et al. 2016

Small Ruminant Research

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The relationship between ultrasound measurements and the empty body chemical composition of mature ewes was studied in two breeds. The breeds were a milk-producing breed Churra da Terra Quente-CTQ (n = 33; live weight 42.0 ± 7.3 kg, mean ± SD), and a meat breed Ile de France-IF (n = 23; live weight 60.7 ± 9.1 kg, mean ± SD). Fat and muscle depths were measured in the live animals by real-time ultrasound scanning (RTU; 7.5 MHz probe) over the 13th thoracic, and between the 3rd and 4th lumbar vertebrae, and total tissue depth over the 11th rib. Following slaughter, the carcass and non-carcass components of the empty body were combined and subjected to chemical analysis and assessment of energy value. Data obtained by RTU after image analysis was used to develop simple and multiple regression models for each breed. The traits most accurately estimated from single RTU measurements were the absolute values for fat content and energy value of the empty body. The respective coefficients of determination (R 2) for IF and CTQ ewes using subcutaneous fat depth over the 13th thoracic vertebra were 0.768 and 0.908 for fat, 0.821 and 0.900 for energy; and for measurements between the 3rd and 4th lumbar vertebrae were 0.845 and 0.911 for fat, 0.852 and 0.906 for energy. All these coefficients were significant (P < 0.01). The best prediction models included one to three RTU measurements and were better for CTQ ewes, where adjusted R 2 values ranged from 0.923 (P < 0.001) for water to 0.969 (P < 0.001) for protein, than for IF ewes, where the range was 0.394 (P < 0.01) for protein to 0.940 (P < 0.001) for fat. The results revealed good estimates of the fat and energy content of the empty body of both breeds and also good estimates of protein content for CTQ ewes, but poor estimates of protein content for IF ewes, with the best prediction models for each body component being different from each breed. Consequently, it is concluded that predictive models that are specific to the breed and circumstances of the study in which they are to be used will have to be established to have a practical application.

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Real-time ultrasound (RTU) imaging methods for quality control of meats

Cited by 21 publications

References 200 publications

Relationships between body condition score and ultrasound skin-associated subcutaneous fat depth in equids

Relationships between body condition score and ultrasound skin-associated subcutaneous fat depth in equids

Development of an index based on ultrasonographic measurements for the objective appraisal of body condition in Andalusian horses

Ewe whole body composition predicted in vivo by real-time ultrasonography and image analysis

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