Qualitative and Quantitative Detection of Typical Reproductive Hormones in Dairy Cows Based on Terahertz Spectroscopy...

Progesterone (PROG) and estrone (E₁) are typical reproductive hormones in dairy cows. Assessing the levels of these hormones in vivo can aid in estrus identification. In the present work, the feasibility of the qualitative and quantitative detection of PROG and E₁ using terahertz time-domain spectroscopy (THz-TDS) and metamaterial technology was preliminarily investigated. First, the time domain spectra, frequency domain spectra, and absorption coefficients of PROG and E₁ samples were collected and analyzed. A vibration analysis was conducted using density functional theory (DFT). Subsequently, a double-ring (DR) metamaterial structure was designed and simulated using the frequency domain solution algorithm in CST Studio Suite (CST) software. This aimed to ensure that the double resonance peaks of DR were similar to the absorption peaks of PROG and E₁. Finally, the response of DR to different concentrations of PROG/E₁ was analyzed and quantitatively modeled. The results show that a qualitative analysis can be conducted by comparing the corresponding DR resonance peak changes in PROG and E₁ samples at various concentrations. The best R² for the PROG quantitative model was 0.9872, while for E₁, it was 0.9828. This indicates that terahertz spectral-metamaterial technology for the qualitative and quantitative detection of the typical reproductive hormones PROG and E₁ in dairy cows is feasible and worthy of in-depth exploration. This study provides a reference for the identification of dairy cow estrus.