Teja Allu, Sakthivel Jeyakumar, Rao Kancharana Ananda, Krishnaswamy Narayanan, Chintalapati Gowtham Varma, Veerappa Vedamurthy Gowdar, Kumaresan Arumugam, Ramesha Kerekoppa P, Sivaram Muniandy, Kataktalware Mukund A, Das Dayal N, Mula Ravi Kumar, Lavanya Maharajan
Department of Veterinary Gynaecology and Obstetrics, College of Veterinary Science, Sri Venkateswara Veterinary University, Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh, India.
Livestock Research Centre, Southern Regional Station, ICAR-National Dairy Research Institute, Bengaluru, India.
Reprod Domest Anim. 2025 May;60(5):e70065. doi: 10.1111/rda.70065.
For the first time, the possibility of using infrared thermography to capture the temperature of the vulval skin surface around the calving process in order to forecast when the buffaloes' calving process will begin has been investigated. FLUKE infrared thermal camera was used to record the vulval skin surface temperature (VSST) and ocular temperature. Twenty-eight multiparous pregnant buffaloes had their thermograms taken at 6-h intervals between the 96th hour before the anticipated calving and the 24th hour after the calving. The eye and vulval skin surface showed a ΔT of 0.56°C and 0.45°C, respectively, indicating a considerable drop in temperature from 48 h before to calving. On the other hand, starting 6 h before calving, the vulval skin temperature showed an upward trend. There was minimal effect of circadian influence on the vulval skin surface temperature, as evidenced by the identical and significant declining pattern of the residual temperature of both the eye and VSST from 48 to 0 h of calving. Nonetheless, the reduction is ascribed to progesterone, which lowers vulval skin vascular perfusion and cutaneous circulation. Our study's findings suggested that, using related thermal signatures, vulval skin surface temperature variation in relation to calving as observed by digital infrared thermal imaging could be explored as a potential tool for predicting the onset of impending calving in buffaloes within -48 h.
首次对利用红外热成像技术捕捉水牛产犊过程中外阴皮肤表面温度以预测产犊何时开始的可能性进行了研究。使用福禄克红外热像仪记录外阴皮肤表面温度（VSST）和眼部温度。28头经产怀孕水牛在预计产犊前96小时至产后24小时期间每隔6小时进行一次热成像拍摄。眼睛和外阴皮肤表面的温度分别下降了0.56°C和0.45°C，表明从产犊前48小时到产犊时温度有显著下降。另一方面，在产犊前6小时开始，外阴皮肤温度呈上升趋势。昼夜节律对外阴皮肤表面温度的影响最小，产犊前48小时到0小时期间眼睛和VSST的残余温度呈现相同且显著的下降模式就证明了这一点。尽管如此，温度降低归因于孕酮，它会降低外阴皮肤血管灌注和皮肤循环。我们研究的结果表明，利用相关热信号，通过数字红外热成像观察到的外阴皮肤表面温度与产犊相关的变化，可作为预测水牛在-48小时内即将产犊的潜在工具进行探索。
