한우 반추위내 바이오캡슐 생체정보와 도체성적간 연관분석

Recent trends in livestock production system via ICT technology include multiple and integrated sensor technologies such as voice, pulse, number of mastication and respiration, CCTV image recognition, etc. in order to study delivery labor, injury, disease infection, estrus, rumen, and authoring, so as to better evaluate and detect major life-producing activities of livestock at early stage. Therefore, this study was conducted to estimate correlation between carcass quality traits and biometric information in ruminant stomach such as pH, rumen body temperature, and activity sensors using a residence-type bio-capsule, which is a kind of ICT technology to improve farm productivity. Ten Korean native steers were chosen at 26 months of age and the bio-capsule data were collected for five months. The steers were slaughtered to obtain carcass quality records and statistical tests were performed to find any association of the carcass traits with those of bio-capsule traits. There were positive correlations between eye muscle area, back-fat thickness, and carcass weight with rumen pH, body temperature and activity. Intramuscular fat and maturity showed positive correlations with body temperature and negative correlations with pH and activity. Conversely, texture had a negative (positive) correlation with body temperature (pH and activity). In particular, the correlation coefficient between activity and intramuscular fat was –0.65, with statistical significanse (p <0.05), suggesting that intramuscular fat increases as cow activity becomes low. The correlation coefficient between rumen pH and carcass weight was 0.50, a positive (+) correlation, suggesting that the lower the pH of the rumen, the smaller the body weight becomes. However, further study is needed to determine other factors affecting the carcass quality, or season and times on day and night to better characterize the relationships between carcass quality and bio-capsule traits in ruminant stomach, which may be helpful to improve carcass quality in Korean native steers.