Ultrasound has been utilized as a tool in beef and dairy research systems for many years, and in more recent years has become available to commercial livestock agriculture. An ultrasound is an electronic instrument that sends out ultrasonic sound waves from an attached device called a transducer. The waves pass freely through fluid and are reflected back to the probe once they contact a soft tissue like muscle or a dense structure like bone, resulting in an image which can be identified as the placenta, fetus, or other organs. Although ultrasound technology may be used for various functions, this article will focus only on the reproductive aspect of ultrasound.

Ultrasound can be used to determine pregnancy status, age of fetus, and sex of fetus. Additionally, ultrasound can accurately determine the presence of a viable embryo as early as 30 days after mating. The accuracy of detecting fetal viability may approach 100%, because the user can visually identify the viable embryo by the presence of a beating heart. A technician with a trained eye has the capability of accurately assessing the age of the fetus based on fetal size (Figure 1). At 60 to 85 days of age the trained user can even determine fetal sex by the absence and/or presence of the fetal genitalia with over 95% accuracy (Figure 2). These two features alone provide many options for the use of ultrasound in reproductive management practices...........Click for more

Source Web Page: University of Florida