A note on the use of a lumbar joint as a predictor of body fat depots in Aragonesa ewes with different body condition scores

Abstract

The lumbar joint, which is handled to assess body condition scores, was taken from 52 adult Rasa Aragonesa ewes with body condition scores between 1·5 and 4·5 and dissected into muscle, bone, subcutaneous and intermuscular fat. The subcutaneous fat in the lumbar joint was highly correlated with total fat in the body (r=0·97), confirming the value of this region for assessing body condition in Rasa Aragonesa ewes.

The merit of condition score and fat score as alternatives to liveweight for managing the nutrition of ewes

“…The relationship with eye muscle depth at the C site was linear with condition score compared with curvilinear with tissue depth at the GR site while the reverse was true of the relationships with fat depth at the C site. The strong linear relationship between condition score and eye muscle depth at the C site is consistent with the role of eye muscle in assessing condition score (Jefferies 1961;Russel et al 1969;Delfa et al 1989). Similarly, the strong curvilinear relationship between measured tissue depth at the GR site and eye muscle depth at the C site is consistent with the observed relationship between measured tissue depth at the GR site and condition score in our data.…”

“…Condition score was developed in Australia (Jefferies 1961) and has since been accepted and used internationally to estimate the 'energy status' or 'nutritional wellbeing' of adult ewes (Russel et al 1969;Delfa et al 1989;Teixeira et al 1989;Caldeira and Vaz Portugal 1991;Oregui et al 1991;Sanson et al 1993;Frutos et al 1997;Caldeira et al 2007;CSIRO 2007). These studies almost uniformly conclude that condition score is preferred over liveweight for this purpose.…”

“…Importantly, assessors also integrate the shape/ fullness of the eye muscle between the backbone and ends of the short ribs with their assessment of tissue cover to allocate a score between 1 (very thin) and 5 (very fat) (Jefferies 1961;Russel et al 1969). Delfa et al (1989) dissected the lumbar joint from ewes in condition scores between 1.5 and 4.5 into muscle, bone, subcutaneous and intramuscular fat. They concluded that eye muscle depth and fat thickness over the eye muscle were both highly correlated with body condition score further confirming the assertion of Jefferies (1961) and Russel et al (1969) that both were equally important in establishing condition score.…”

Estimating fat reserves in Rasa Aragonesa ewes: A comparison of different methods

“…Carcasses were chilled for 24 h at 3°C and then the PR fat depot was removed and weighed. The lumbar joint, which corresponds with the point at which BCS was determined, was removed from the left half carcass and dissected into fat, muscle and bone as described by Delfa et al (1989). The weights of subcutaneous and intermuscular fat For personal use only.…”

Rendimentos de cortes, proporção tecidual da carcaça e composição centesimal da carne de caprinos jovens em função do grupo racial e do peso corporal de abate

“…1 -perna; 2 -lombo; 3 -costela; 4 -paleta; 5 -pescoço (Yáñez, 2002;Pereira Filho, 2003). Foram determinadas as quantidades de tecido ósseo, muscular, adiposo (subdividido em gordura subcutânea e intermuscular) e gordura perirrenal (Delfa et al, 1989). O experimento foi conduzido no delineamento em blocos ao acaso (sexo), e os dados submetidos à análise de variância em esquema fatorial com 5 grupos raciais (GR) x 3 pesos de abate (PA), conforme modelo abaixo, e foi aplicado o teste de Tukey (P<0,05) para comparação entre médias.…”