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ULTRASONIC RESEARCH IN GREAT B R J T A I M AND EUROPE

PROF. Jq R. STOUFFER

Interest i n ultrasonics for sof% t i s sue visualization of animals and humans has been very high in a l l countries t ha t I have had an opportunity t o v i s i t t h i s spring. It is indeed a pleasure t o be able t o make B contribu- t i o n t o the 1963 Reciprocal Meat Conference although I cannot attend personally.

Great Br i ta in

During t h e month of February 1963, I cooperated in a research project with T. Wall and Sons (Meat and Handy Foods) Ltd. In London. We were Interested in obtaining ultrasonic cross sect ional scans on several locations i n l i v e hogs and warm pork carcasses t o see i f an accurate index of t o t a l meatiness or carcass value could be located.

These observations were carr ied out on carcasses tha t were dis- sected i n t o lean, f a t and bone. by T. Walls t o d issec t 4,000 half pork carcasses per year in order t o identif'y lean content of carcasses from different genetic, nu t r i t i ona l and management work in their large scale research program.

A f u l l time dissection team i s employed

Investigations were carried out on warm pork carcasses hanging on the r a i l i n order t o a m i d the problems associated with handling l i v e hogs4 Sixty-two carcasses were evaluated by making 7 separate nine-inch scans with a Branson Sonoray 510 Animal Scanner. four comprising a longitudinal scan over the middle of the longissimus dors i from ham t o the shoulder and one across the g.2. a t the l a s t r ib . was made across the humerus i n order t o get a measure of the f a t and lean in the picnic, The other scan was made on t he ham.

Five scans were made over the loin;

One scan

The carcasses were handled on the slaughter Use i n the custmary Br i t i sh method with the exceptions, (1) they were not singed a s t h i s t r e a t - ment is quite severe by our standards and would make ultrasonic penetration impossible, (2) the carcasses were not s p l i t u n t i l a f t e r evaluation. the complete backbone is chopped out on t he moving line.

Horrnally

The f a t and lean areas from each of the scans were traced and measured. These values are t o be correlated with percent lean and f a t of the ham, loin, and shoulder a s well as t o t a l lean and f a t of the carcass. Unfortunately, ccanputation of the data is not cmaplete a t this time and the results are not available. The technique appears t o be applicable t o these locations on the carcasses a s very good d e t a i l of interfaces was obtained. The f i v e loin scans were a lso made ca 3 l i v e hogs suspended i n a res t ra ining crate t o see i f shilar re su l t s could be obtained. similar t o the pictures obtained on the carcasses.

The results were very

255 . A few interest ing observations were made during t h i s study:

1. The time in te rva l between slaughter and evaluation was not always the same and apparently the velocity of sound was affected due t o differences in carcass temperature.

2, Time required t o make the 7 scans on individual carcasses varied frcm about 10 minutes towards t h e end of t h e experiment and about 60 minutes a t the beginning. was primarily due t o experience and techniques developed,

This

Although there was considerable in t e re s t i n the poss ib i l i t i e s of using ultrasonics by many researchers t ha t I vis i ted, Dr. John W. B o King, Animal Breeding Research Organization, Edinburgh was the only one who was act ively working on the development of an ultrasonic scanning unit. uni t i s a ccmplex scanning system u t i l i z ing a water bath nedium t o transmit through and a long persis tent memory tube f o r displajj. Unfortunately I did not see h i s equipment as I did not Get t o Scotland.

Eis

I did have an opportunity t o v i s i t D r . Douglas Gordon (London) who has developed sane very interest ing ultrasonic scanning equipment fo r medical applications.

The Netherlands

M r . Kroeske, In s t i t u t e voor Veeteeltkundig Onderzoek, Zeist, a Federal research s ta t ion, i s using an "A scan" Krautkramer uni t f o r studies with hogs and fo r selection of breeding swine. I v is i ted D r . M. deVlieger, D i jkzicht Hospital, Rotterdam, and saw a demonstration of ultrasonic scan- ning fo r "Echo-encepholography", The basic uni t was a Krautkramer used fo r "A scan'' monitoring and there was a companion unit, which was fabricated by Roentgen Technische Dienst, wlth a larger screen where the "B scan" was displayed and photographed. and we observed the ref lect ions from the brain midline and both sides of t h e skul l ,

A subject ' s sku l l was scanned with the unit ,

West Germany

1. University of Gottfngen - Two ultrasonic uni ts a r e being u t i l i zed i n research and prac t ica l application a t t h i s i n s t i t u t ion by D r . Diebmann and associates. A n "A scan'' Krautkramer is presently being used a t 2 annual boar sales. Fat thickness and depth of lean a r e measured on a l l boars t h a t a r e consigned when they a re brought t o the sa l e barn the day before the sale. of 3 o f f i c i a l s who score the animals fo r type. 2 or better) a re then evaluated fo r f a t thickness and loin-eye area u t i l i z ing the Kkautkramer and the p lo t t ing of individual readings. Rate of gain, f a t thickness and loin-eye area a re added t o the sa l e catalog a t the time of s a l e by an announcer.

The boars a re then shown before a committee The best boars (score

A Sonoray 510 scanner is being used t o evaluate loin-eye area on year-old bul l s j u s t pr ior t o slaughter. r i b and a l so a t 2 lumbar vertebrae further back. Fat and lean values from

Scans a re made ju s t behind the 13th

256

these pictures w i l l be compared with carcass tracings a t t he same locations and with physically - separated f a t and lean. There are 4 "well-muscled" Friesan bul ls slaughtered each week i n t h i s program*

The Sonoray is a lso used t o measure f a t thickness and loin-eye area on about 4 slaughter bogs each week. These hogs are a lso dissected in to f a t , lean and bone for routine evaluation. Pietrain and L. x P. crosses coming through the laboratory are beautilful examples of meat type hogs.

Some of the Landrace,

A conference of "Live Animal Evaluation With Ultrasonics" was held a t Ghttingen on May W , 1963. There I heard sone very interesting papers and comments by German workers who are using ultrasonics. A l l of the Animal Breeding and/or Animal Husbandry Institutes i n West Germaqj were represented.

Max Planck-Institut fur Tierzucht, Mecklenhorst

Dr. Lauprecht and an assis tant described a Krautkramer scanning unit tha t they had used on c a t t l e and hogs. of a standard "A scan" Krautkramer and a similar-sized companion uni t which has an intensi ty modulation presentation of signal. A n ineqensive p la te camera is mounted in front of a narrow s l i t and is rotated on a c i r c l e a rc a s the transducer is moved by hand in a fixed c i r c l e t rack on the animal's back. of a cable attached t o the transducer. A counterweight i s attached t o the camera t o offer some resistance t o mwement during the scanning and t o return the transducer and camera t o zero position a f i e r a scan4 The lack of uniform ra t e of movement by manual operation is a problem tha t they encountered.

The scanning unit consists

The movement of the camera is mechanical and is driven by the pu l l

Institut fb Tierzucht , West -Berlin

Dr . Ears t in Dr. Kliesch's Department reported sane work with a modified Krautkramer scanner and some other interesting observations. early scanDer described above is i l l u s t r a t ed In an a r t i c l e by Kliesch and Horst, Zkhtungskunde, Bd. 33, 1961, Pg. 447-59. modified the scanner so t ha t both r ight and left loin-eyes can be recorded in one scan. They a l so made some very interesting velocity measurements on hogs. They reported the following velocit ies:

The

Dr. Horst has recently

Skin 1717 rn/sec., f i rs t f a t layer 1459 m/sec., second f a t layer 1431 m/sec., third f a t layer 1508 m/sec., and lean 1631 m/sec.

Bayerische Landesanstalt f u r Tierzucht, Munich

Dr. Bower's group has a l so reported results using the "A scan" Krautkramer and plotting technique on hogs and bulls.

257 0

I n s t i t u t f b Tierzuchtlehre ,,Stuttgart -Hohenheim

Dr . Fewson has a l so been working with the "A scan'' Krautkramer.

Dr . B. L. Dmont, Jouy-en-Josas France a l so participated in t h e conference. t o begin evaluation studies d t h c a t t l e in the near fu tu re .

He has not done any work with ultrasonic since 1957 b u t hopes

I expect t o v i s i t with most of these people a t t he i r i n s t i t u t e s i n the near future a s well a s other people in other European countries i n order t o see the work where it is being carried out,

DR. RAMSEY: Thanlt you, Jim,

Before we go into our discussion session I want t o mention the session which we w i l l have tcmorrow afternoon a t 3:45 a t the conclusion of the par t of the Conference which i s held i n t h i s room. be held i n the Meat Lab which i s within walking distance of here. A t t h i s session we w i l l have a demonstration of equipment. three d i f fe ren t u n i t s , and one of these units will have a one-to-one r a t i o of oscilloscope t o actual animal f a t or whatever you are measuring. weighs a t o t a l of 11$ pounds, so this i s rather portable, I would say& We a l so w i l l have animal carcasses -- i n t h i s case swine and sheep, which were evaluated yesterday. You w i l l be able t o compare the carcass measurements with the ultrasonic evaluation tha t was made by the Missouri wo2kers. a re deeply indebted t o them for bringing the i r equipment and spending a l o t of t h e over there along with the U. S, D. A, workers, those from V. P. I. and our hosts here a t Oklahoma State. going t o s t a r t on t h i s work a t 6:30 yesterday morning, and he said "Are you sure you want t o s t a r t t ha t early?" l i t t l e b i t longer. pect quite a b i t of par t ic ipat ion from the audience. t o get a preliminary count of those who plan t o attend t h i s session 30 t ha t we can make our plans a l i t t l e more concrete, Kemp t o count the ones t o t h e l e f t of the projector and I w i l l count the ones on the other side. hands u n t i l we can count them.

T h i s session w i l l

We w i l l have a t l e a s t

It

We

I to ld Dr. Zobrisky tha t we were

I think he m s wanting t o sleep a This session w i l l be rather informal, and we w i l l ex-

A t t h i s time, I need

I ' m going t o ask Dr .

If you plan t o attend this session, please hold up your

A t t h i s t h e I w i l l open the f loor for discussion, and i f you have any questions, please di rec t them t o one of the speakers a t the f ront tab le I

MR, CHARLES H. A M I S (Nebraska): I ' d l i ke t o ask B i l l Backus i f any have reported the use of t ranqui l izers i n the animals t o keep them from moving, and if t h a t has any influence on their correlation?