Session C4.44 Abstract no.283 Ultrasound evaluation of the mammary gland tissue structure in preparturient heifers vs. performance of first calvers

Department of Animal Nutrition, National Research Institute of Animal Production 32-083 Balice n. Kraków; (2) Department of Cattle Breeding, Agricultural University, 30-059 Kraków, Al. Mickiewicza 24/28; (3) Oncology Centre, Department of Imaging Diagnostics, 31-115 Kraków, Garncarska 11 Abstract To determine the development of secretory tissue of the mammary gland and to avoid the use of invasive methods, tissue structure of the mammary gland was examined in vivo with Aloka SSD-500 ultrasound device (Aloka Co., Ltd., Japan). The ultrasound images were binarized and brightness level was determined on a grey scale of 0 to 255. The image brightness scale of 128 (lower threshold) to 255 (upper threshold) was applied. Pixels with brightness values of 0 to 127 were assigned to the adipose tissue, and pixels with brightness values of 128 to 255 were assigned to the secretory tissue of udder quarter. Then, percentage of bright image area was calculated in a predetermined image area. The results were recorded with regard to the area of the predetermined ultrasound image portion, the grey area and the percentage of grey area, and was output in the results file. Highly significant correlations were found between the percentage of secretory tissue in the mammary gland and the milk yield of primiparous cows.