CIGR VI 2019

Presentation information

Oral Session

Postharvest/Food Technology and Process Engineering

[6-1015-C] Postharvest/Food Technology and Process Engineering (6)

Fri. Sep 6, 2019 10:15 AM - 11:30 AM Room C (3rd room)

Chair:Xujun Ye(Hirosaki University, Japan)

11:15 AM - 11:30 AM

[6-1015-C-05] Cow Milk Progesterone Concentration Determination during Milking Using Near-infrared Spectroscopy

*Patricia Nneka Iweka1, Shuso Kawamura1, Tomohiro Mitani2, Takashi Kawaguchi3, Shigenobu Koseki1 (1. Hokkaido Univ.(Japan), 2. Field Sc. Center(Japan), 3. Orion Mach.(Japan))

Keywords: Bovine milk, Progesterone, Estrus status, Pregnancy diagnosis, Trend monitoring, Near-infrared spectroscopy, Automatic milking system

In the current dairy industry, an intensive demand for estrus detection and early diagnosis of pregnancy has been increasing. Progesterone is a steroid hormone that is secreted from corpus luteum into bovine blood and milk, and has a role of maintenance of estrus cycle and pregnancy. Therefore, progesterone concentration in cow milk is used as an important indicator of estrus detection and early diagnosis of pregnancy. Current method for milk progesterone determination requires a hormone extraction procedure that is time consuming, various types of instruments, reagents management, and various assay methods that are destructive in nature. In contrast, near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) is a time saving and non-destructive analytical method that can be used for online real-time determination of milk constituents content such as milk fat, protein, lactose, milk urea nitrogen and somatic cell count. However, there has been limited study on using NIRS for online real-time determination of progesterone concentration in milk during milking. Thus, the objective of this study was to develop an online real-time NIR spectroscopic sensing system for milk progesterone determination during milking by using a specific enzyme immunosorbent assay as a reference (chemical) method. Milk spectra with a wavelength range of 700 to 1050 nm and milk samples were collected every 20 s during milking from four lactating Holstein cows for 28 days using the NIR spectroscopic sensing system. Calibration models were developed using partial least squares analytical method and the precision and accuracy of the models was validated. Milk progesterone concentration for each milking was calculated by taking the progesterone concentration of the milk predicted values and milk yield obtained every 20 s, and was compared with the milk progesterone concentration chemical analysis value for one milking (bucket milk). The results obtained show that the measurement accuracy for one milking of milk progesterone concentrations was reasonably good. By installing the NIR spectroscopic sensing system developed in this study into an automatic milking system, it could predict milk progesterone concentration for one milking with almost the same accuracy as chemical analysis. Therefore, taking records of predicted values at every milking time and monitoring the continuous change of the milk progesterone concentrations, it would be possible to use this information for the detection of estrus status and diagnosis of pregnancy of each cow.