[4-1600-C] Postharvest/Food Technology and Process Engineering (4)

[4-1600-C-05] Stationary Machine Vision Based Real-Time Estimation of Japanese Black Cattle Serum Vitamin A using Eye Fundus Color

*SAMUEL OUMA OTIENO¹, Naoshi Kondo¹, Tateshi Fujiura¹, Yuichi Ogawa¹, Tetsuhito Suzuki¹, Katsuya Takenouchi¹, Hidetsugu Yoshioka¹, Moriyuki Fukushima², Takahiko Ohmae³ (1. Graduate School of Agriculture, Kyoto University(Japan), 2. Hyogo Prefectural Hokubu Agricultural Institute(Japan), 3. Tajima Agricultural High school(Japan))

Keywords:Japanese Black Cattle, Beef, Vitamin A, Fundus Color, Machine Vision

Japanese black cattle are well known all over the world for their highly tender and deep flavored beef. In Japan, Beef Marbling Standards (BMS) has predominantly become the most influential factor for deciding the beef quality. Due to the negative correlation between serum vitamin A (Vit. A) level and BMS, higher BMS has been achieved by gradually reducing the amount of serum Vit. A in the cattle during fattening. This activity can be dangerous therefore needs to be precisely monitored. The conventional way of monitoring Vit. A level is by blood sampling and it`s very costly, time-consuming, and stressful to the cattle. As a result, our laboratory members have tirelessly conducted a number of researches to develop the best alternative. These previous researches have achieved Vit. A level estimation from the eye surface features like pupil color, pupil reflection, and pupil light reflex. In this research, we investigate the eye fundus color in addition to the pupil color, pupil reflection, and pupil light reflex in a stationary machine vision system to estimate serum Vit. A level in Japanese Black Cattle.