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Prairie Swine Centre is an affiliate of the University of Saskatchewan
Prairie Swine Centre is grateful for the assistance of the George Morris Centre in developing the economics portion of Pork Insight.
Financial support for the Enterprise Model Project and Pork Insight has been provided by:
A second look at the influence of birth weight on carcass and meat quality in pigs
Posted in: Meat Quality by admin on January 1, 2008 | No Comments
Birth weight and within-litter variation in birth weight are important economic traits in pig production. Genetic selection for large litters during the last decades has lowered mean birth weight, which mainly results from a higher competition of the fetuses in utero reflected also by an inverse correlation of birth weight and litter size (e.g. Milligan, Fraser, & Kramer, 2002; Quiniou, Dagorn, & Gaudre, 2002). Low birth weight, however, is associated with decreased survival and lower postnatal growth rates (e.g. Herpin, Damon, & Le Dividich, 2002; Milligan et al., 2002; Pond & Mersmann, 1988; Quiniou et al., 2002; Ritter & Zschorlich, 1990). In addition, pigs at market weight originating from piglets of low birth weight develop a lower carcass quality in terms of higher fat deposition and lower lean accretion compared with their middle or heavy weight littermates (Bee, 2004; Gondret et al., 2006; Hegarty and Allen, 1978; Kuhn et al., 2002; Poore & Fowden, 2004; Powell and Aberle, 1980, 1981; Rehfeldt and Kuhn, 2006). Low birth weight results from intrauterine growth retardation during gestation. It has been shown previously that small piglets form a lower total number of skeletal muscle fibres during prenatal development compared with their larger littermates (Gondret et al., 2006; Handel & Stickland, 1987; Wigmore & Stickland, 1983). From recent studies, it has been suggested that it is the low number of muscle fibres, which restricts the potential of postnatal lean growth and therefore allows to deposit increased amounts of fat (Rehfeldt & Kuhn, 2006). In addition, tendencies towards lower meat quality in terms of tenderness and water holding capacity have been observed at slaughter, when the piglets were small at birth (Gondret et al., 2005; Gondret et al., 2006; Rehfeldt & Kuhn, 2006), which may be associated with accelerated muscle fibre hypertrophy because of low fibre number. The studies on the influence of birth weight mentioned above have in common, that the number of animals used in the experiments were not very large (5–32 pigs per birth weight group born to 13– 16 sows) and the variation in the traits of interest caused by the dam/litter has not always been considered in the statistical models. Therefore, this study was conducted using a larger set of pigs from 63 litters in total to re-examine the consequences of birth weight for ultimate carcass and meat quality. In order to accomplish this, the offspring (n = 378) of the 63 sows were assigned to three birth weight groups; 25% low weight, 50% middle weight, and 25% heavy weight, with runts (<800 g) being excluded. Low weight pigs exhibited the lowest postnatal growth performance, the lowest lean mass and the greatest degree of fatness in terms of perirenal fat compared with medium weight and heavy weight pigs. Only in females, but not in male castrates, the lean percentage was highest in heavy weight pigs. Characteristics of longissimus muscle technological quality declined either in low weight (pH, drip loss) or heavy weight (conductivity, lightness) compared with medium weight pigs. In contrast, intramuscular fat percentage (IMF) was highest in low weight pigs. The results suggest that the most desirable carcass composition is obtained with heavy weight pigs, whereas optimum technological pork quality, except for IMF, is achieved with medium weight pigs.
The influence of diets supplemented with conjugated linoleic acid, selenium, and vitamin E, with or without animal protein, on the composition of pork from female pigs
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This study evaluated the effect of dietary manipulations on the fatty acid composition, Se content, and vitamin E content of pork. It was found that by changing from a part animal component diet to an all plant diet will not change the growth performance of pigs but changes in the fatty acid profile of pork are likely to occur. Also, the nutritional value of pork may be successfully enhanced by supplementing the diet with CLA, selenium and vitamin E at the same time.
Intramuscular fat content has little influence on the eating quality of fresh pork loin chops
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In this study fresh pork loins (n = 290) were selected from a commercial packing facility based on subjective marbling of the intact loin and 24-h pH to determine the influence of marbling on quality measurements, including color, marbling, and firmness, ultimate pH, and drip loss, were determined after aging. Results from a trained panel indicate that the percentage of extractable lipid did not correlate strongly with perceived tenderness, juiciness,
or pork flavor for this group of pork loins that was controlled for genetics, pH, management, and day of slaughter.
Genetic markers for the production of US country hams
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The objective of this study was to determine the effect of candidate genes on processing quality traits of US country hams. Results showed that two genetic markers were significantly associated with cured weight and
yield: (i) a gene from the cathepsin family (cathepsin F) and (ii) the stearoyl- CoA desaturase (delta-9-desaturase) gene, involved in lipid metabolism.
Investigation of QTL regions on Chromosome 17 for genes associated with meat color in the pig
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This paper finds that the EDN3 and PHACTR3 genes might have potential effects on meat
colour in pigs, and molecular mechanisms of their functions are worth
exploring.
Protein, nucleic acid content and activity of m- and m-calpain in the longissimus dorsi muscle as affected by protein and energy restriction during early growth of pigs
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It is well known that accelerated/compensatory growth may occur in pigs after a
period of feed restriction. However, very few data are available on the possible consequences of accelerated
growth on muscle protein-turnover in pigs (growth rate of muscle, nucleic acid
contents, proteolytic enzyme activities). The content of DNA and RNA, as well as
their mutual proportions, influences the capacity of muscle for protein synthesis.
Similarly, the activity of proteolytic enzymes (e.g. m- and m-calpain) influences
muscle growth (Goll et al. 1998). The majority of studies on this topic investigated
final effects, mainly at slaughter weight (e.g. Kristensen et al. 2002; Oksbjerg et al.
2002; Therkildsen et al. 2002, 2004). In this study, these effects are examined in
growing pigs from 25–105 kg bodyweight (BW) at several stages of bodyweight. Based on the results it can be concluded that limitation of protein and energy intake during early growth of pigs does not strongly influence
daily muscle gain and protein deposition in the LD muscle. Similarly, re-introducing
adequate feeding did not influence these features. However, protein/energy
restriction decreases DNA concentration in the LD muscle, and during the following
recovery period the DNA concentration tends towards its normal content.
Moreover, higher rate of gain of total content of DNA in the LD muscle of
temporarily restricted pigs do not cause increased protein deposition in the muscle. As far as the activity of m-calpain is concerned, our results do not prove that it could
be increased in recovering pigs.
Molecular characterization, expression and association analysis of the porcine CMYA4 gene with carcass traits
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In this study, we obtained the mRNA sequence including the full coding sequence and the partial 5′ untranslated
region of the porcine CMYA4 gene by using the rapid amplification of cDNA ends and reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and the sequence was deposited in the GenBank nucleotide database. It was found that association of genotypes with growth and carcass traits showed that different genotypes of the CMYA4 gene were significantly associated with the backfat thickness of the area between sixth and seventh ribs (p < 0.05) and backfat
thickness at the shoulder (p < 0.05).
The influence of diets supplemented with conjugated linoleic acid, selenium, and vitamin E, with or without animal protein, on the quality of pork from female pigs
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This study assessed the quality of pork from the LM and semimembranosus muscle (SM). The pigs were grown on diets containing either animal or plant products, or plant products only (the plant group), with or without
a supplement containing extra CLA, selenium, and vitamin E. It is concluded that the dietary treatments had some effects on certain meat quality parameters. However, the overall effects on appearance and palatability were small and unlikely to be of importance.
Quality Evaluation of Fresh Pork Using Visible and Near-Infrared Spectroscopy with Fiber Optics in Interactance Mode
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The feasibility of evaluating color value, chemical components, and other physical characteristics of fresh,
random thickness pork samples by visible/near‐infrared (NIR) spectroscopy was determined. It was found that the color and chemical composition can be evaluated very accurately and it is possible to make rapid, nondestructive, and accurate pork quality evaluation using visible and near‐infrared spectroscopy.
Influence of sex and castration of females on growth performance and carcass and meat quality of heavy pigs destined for the dry-cured industry
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This paper investigates the effects of sex and slaughter weight (SW) on growth performance and on carcass and meat quality characteristics. There were 6 treatments arranged factorially, with 3 classes (intact females, IF; castrated females, CF; and castrated males, CM) and 2 slaughter weights (114 and 122 kg of BW). It was found that castrated males and females at more feed, grew faster, and had more carcass backfat depth. Also, compared to intact females, CF and CM had more intramuscular fat and less linoleic acid content in the subcutaneous fat. It is concluded that CF and CM had similar productive performance meat quality characteristics when slaughtered at the same age, and that castration of females improved average daily gain and increased weight and fat content of primal cuts. Therefore, castration of females is recommended for pigs destined for the dry-cured industry because of the beneficial quality effects of the primal cuts when castrated.