The use of ultrasounds to predict lean meat proportion of lambs carcasses
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abstract
The objective or this work was to study the use of ultrasounds to predict lean meat proportion of lamb
carcasses. One hundred and twenty lambs (SO males and 40 females) of Churra Bragançana Portuguese
local breed with a mean live weight of 23.0±6.9 kg were used. Lambs were scanned using an ALOI(A
SSD-500V ultrasound machine. equipped with one probe of 7.5 MHz, at lumbar and sterna I regions. The
images were analysed in order to measure the longissimus muscle depth (LD), subcutaneous fat thickness
(SF). between the 121h and J31h vertebrae, and breast bone tissue thickness at 3"1 (BT3) sternebrae. Lambs
were slaughtered after 24 h fasting and carcasses were cooled at 4 T for 24 hours. Carcass left side was
dissected into muscle. subcutaneous fat, intermuscular fat and bone and remainder (major blood vessels.
ligaments, tendons, and thick connective tissue sheets associated with some muscles). The LD, SF, BT3
and hot carcass weight were fitted as independent variables to predict lean meat proportion. of carcass.
Hot carcass weight explained 18.9% of lean meat proportion with a mean square error of 3.5%. Model
including tissues measurements explained 57 .2% of lean meat proportion with a root mean square error of
2.6%. These results indicate that carcass tissues measured by ultrasounds can be used to predict the lean
meat proportion of Churra Bragançana lambs.
