BIF-Proceedings-Final-flip

47 2018 BIF Research Symposium and Convention • Proceeding Papers Ultrasound Guidelines Council Update: Field and Lab Certification Review Patrick Wall, Ultrasound Guidelines Council Executive Director The Ultrasound Guidelines Council (UGC) serves as the seedstock industry standard for establishing proficiency testing guidelines for collecting, interpreting, and submitting carcass data records via live animal ultrasound to participating beef breed associations in the United States. Since 2003, these standards have been reviewed, upheld, or even strengthened as the technology has progressed. Field technicians must “certify” that they are proficient at scanning cattle by collected good quality images that are easy to interpret in the lab. These technicians must certify in person at least twice before they are eligible for in absentia certification, a process that reviews image quality on the body of work submitted by the technician over the previous two years. Lab technicians, or those that interpret images submitted from the field, must also certify every two years with no eligibility for in absentia . Lab certifications are tied to a specific technology, or type of ultrasound machine. The Certification Process (Proficiency Testing) To become UGC Field Certified, ultrasound technicians must pass proficiency testing (often referred to as UGC Field Certification). Proficiency testing includes a written exam, and the collection of ultrasound images of the rump, rib, and intramuscular fat. Twenty animals, varying in age, gender, and condition are scanned representing breeding cattle as well as harvest cattle. Each technician collects images on every animal twice (i.e., in two sessions). Animals are renumbered between sessions. Technicians should be prepared to spend no more than three minutes collecting images from a single animal. All animals will be clipped in advance by the host institution. UGC Reference Field Technicians collect images on the same animals. The images collected are interpreted by UGC Reference Lab Technicians to yield estimates of ribeye area, rib fat, rump fat, and intramuscular fat. The Reference Lab Technicians also score every image for image quality. Measurements from images collected by the Reference Field Technicians are used as the standards for each trait. Technicians are evaluated based on several statistics including image quality, correlation, bias, standard error of prediction, repeatability, and standard error of repeatability. The UGC website contains study materials and explanations of the statistics used to evaluate technician proficiency. Statistics for all technicians are evaluated by members of the UGC Board of Directors which makes all pass/fail decisions. Technicians are notified of the results within about six weeks of the certification program. Standards for in person UGC certification of field technicians An in person demonstration of proficiency will consist of an official UGC proctored event at which 20 animals will be scanned twice by the individual seeking certification. The animals used at this event will be of a weight representative of well managed yearling age purebred beef cattle of breeds that are commonly used in commercial beef production. These same cattle will be scanned immediately prior to the certification event by three UGC certified technicians (reference technicians) who have previously met the criteria for in absentia certification in the immediately preceding two certification cycles (i.e., four years). Subject to quality control, the data produced by the reference technicians, when averaged, will serve as the standard for the certification event. Images collected during the certification event will be analyzed independently by a minimum of two experienced and UGC certified image interpretation technicians. Average results of these analyses (again subject to quality control) will be the data used to assess the proficiency of each individual. Any individual seeking in person certification of their proficiency in ultrasonic imaging of phenotypes that are indicative of carcass merit in beef cattle must successfully meet all of the following criteria. 1. Achieve a score of 70% or greater on a 25 question open book examination of the individual’s general knowledge of UGC, use of ultrasound by the beef industry, and applicable ultrasound technologies. 2. Produce a minimum of 15 pairs of images that can be interpreted for depth of fat at the 12th-13th rib interface FAT, depth of fat over the rump (RMP), area or the longissimus dorsi muscle at the 12th-13th rib interface (REA), and intramuscular fat within the longissimus dorsi (IMF). Failure to produce 16 pairs of interpretable images for any of the anatomical locations shall result in the individual not being certified by UGC.