Prediction of carcass composition in vivo by slaughter weight and ultrasound measurements in Churro Galego Bragançano local breed lambs Conference Paper uri icon

abstract

  • Forty Churro Galego Bragançano local breed lambs (20 females and 20 males) with an mean live weight of 19.3 kg ( 10 to 28.5 kg) were scanned by ultrasound to M. Longissimus dorsi depth (MLDD), subcutaneous fat thickness (SFT) between the 12th-1 3th dorsal vertebra (D 12), l st-2nd (Ll ) and 3rd-4th (L3) lumbar vertebra and breast bone tissue thickness (BET) at 2nd (S2), 3rd (S3) and 4th sternebra. Lambs were slaughtered after 24-h fast ing. Carcasses were cooled at 4 °C for 24 h. and halved carefully. The left side was divided into eight standardized commercial joints: leg, chump, loin. Ribs, anterior ribs, shoulder, breast and neck. Each joint was then dissected into muscle, subcutaneous fat. intermuscular fat and bone. The in vivo ultrasound measurements plus slaughter weight were fitted to predict carcass tissue composition by stepwise regression analysis. All the developed models were highly significant (P<0.001) and explained 60, 76,64 and 74% of the muscle, subcutaneous fat, intermuscular fat and bone variation, respectively. The models residual standard deviations were lower than 20 g kg-1

publication date

  • January 1, 2000