What is a swine ultrasound machine? What problems can it solve for pig farmers?

What is a swine ultrasound machine?
What problems can it solve for pig farmers?

The application of ultrasound in pig production is already very common. Swine ultrasound machines can be used to detect pregnancy in sows, assess their reproductive performance, including pregnancy diagnosis and evaluation of reproductive status.

Swine ultrasound machines have recently gained attention in the pig industry for their ability to visually diagnose early pregnancy. In many different production environments, external transabdominal RTUs have been successfully used to determine the pregnancy status of females as early as the third week after mating. しかし, another potential benefit of RTUs may be the ability to determine the reproductive status of females by examining the ovaries and reproductive tract. With further development of ultrasound technology and equipment, it is possible to detect pregnancy in sows earlier and more accurately, accurately assess the ovarian status of sows, and have practical applications in production environments. This article introduces readers to RTUs and how they can be used in sows to improve reproductive management.

Ultrasound is based on the ability of certain types of crystals within a transducer (or probe) to vibrate and emit ultrasonic waves when an electric current is applied. The same crystal can send and receive reflected ultrasonic waves. Larger crystals are present in 3.5 MHz probes. This probe generates low-frequency ultrasound waves that can penetrate deep into the animal’s body, but typically has lower resolution (the ability to distinguish structures). In contrast, 5.0 そして 7.5 MHz transducers generate high-frequency ultrasound waves with shorter propagation distances, resulting in higher image resolution. The availability of these different transducers means that you can choose greater depth penetration with lower image resolution, or shallower imaging with higher image resolution. Additional options are available for the arrangement of the crystals in the transducer to change the area of ​​the image being viewed. Linear probes produce rectangular two-dimensional images, while convex or fan-shaped probes do not.

Portable swine ultrasound machines currently cost between 3,000 そして 8,000 yuan, while more expensive veterinary-grade swine ultrasound machines cost even more, up to 40,000 yuan.

All swine ultrasound machines produce black and white images, which allows for the discrimination between tissues of different densities because the brightness of a point is proportional to the amplitude of the signal.