The relationship of pork carcass weight and leanness parameters in the Ontario commercial pork industry

Abstract

This study aimed to examine the correlation of carcass weight, fat depth, muscle depth, and predicted lean yield in commercial pigs. Data were collected on 850,819 pork carcasses from the same pork processing facility between October 2017 and September 2018. Hot carcass weight was reported following slaughter as a head-on weight; while fat and muscle depth were measured with a Destron PG-100 probe and used for the calculation of predicted lean yield based on the Canadian Lean Yield (CLY) equation [CLY (%) = 68.1863 − (0.7833 × fat depth) + (0.0689 × muscle depth) + (0.0080 × fat depth2) − (0.0002 × muscle depth2) + (0.0006 × fat depth × muscle depth)]. Descriptive statistics, regression equations including coefficients of determination, and Pearson product moment correlation coefficients (when assumptions for linearity were met) and Spearman’s rank-order correlation coefficients (when assumptions for linearity were not met) were calculated for attributes using SigmaPlot, version 11 (Systat Software, Inc., San Jose, CA). Weak positive correlation was observed between hot carcass weight and fat depth (r = 0.289; P < 0.0001), and between hot carcass weight and muscle depth (r = 0.176; P < 0.0001). Weak negative correlations were observed between hot carcass weight and predicted lean yield (r = −0.235; P < 0.0001), and between fat depth and muscle depth (r = −0.148; P < 0.0001). Upon investigation of relationships between fat depth and predicted lean yield, and between muscle depth and predicted lean yield using scatter plots, it was determined that these relationships were not linear and therefore the assumptions of Pearson product moment correlation were not met. Thus, these relationships were expressed as nonlinear functions and Spearman’s rank-order correlation coefficients were used. A strong negative correlation was observed between fat depth and predicted lean yield (r = −0.960; P < 0.0001), and a moderate positive correlation was observed between muscle depth and predicted lean yield (r = 0.406; P < 0.0001). Results from this dataset revealed that hot carcass weight was generally weakly correlated (r < |0.35|) with fat depth, muscle depth, and predicted lean yield. Therefore, it was concluded that there were no consistent weight thresholds where pigs were fatter or heavier muscled.

Genome‐wide association studies for additive and dominance effects for body composition traits in commercial crossbred Piétrain pigs

“…In a bivariate analysis, we did for the traits investigated in the present study, a strong negative genetic correlation was observed between FD and LMP (−0.96) and a moderate positive genetic correlation was found between MD and LMP (0.66). These results are consistent with Barducci et al (2019) that found the genetic correlation of −0.96 between FD and predicted lean yield and of 0.41 between MD and predicted lean yield. With positive genetic correlation between MD and LMP, it would have been expected to find some common genes controlling these two traits.…”

Evaluation of dietary selenium sources and levels on growth performance, carcass characteristics, selenium concentrations, and blood parameters of growing-finishing pigs

“…Therefore, the dressing percentage, expressed as a ratio of live weight, and backfat thickness are considered in the production of high-quality livestock products. In a previous study, hot carcass weight was positively correlated with fat and muscle thickness, as well as negatively correlated with lean yield [26]. Although the increased hot carcass weight did not lead to an increase in backfat thickness in our study, the increased hot carcass weight in the ISe group may be related to bone and/or skeletal muscle development.…”

Pre-Slaughter Sources of Fresh Meat Quality Variation: The Case of Heavy Pigs Intended for Protected Designation of Origin Products

“…This increase is driven by both the dilution of fixed production cost over more weight per pig and the improvement of genetic selection of lean-type pigs [ 4 ]. Several studies evaluated the effects of greater slaughter weights on profitability, carcass quality, primal cuts yield, and pork quality (e.g., [ 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 ]); however, only in a few studies the slaughter weight considerably exceeded 125 kg [ 5 , 10 ]. This framework results in a pronounced lack of knowledge concerning the quality of the fresh meat of heavy pigs, and in particular on how pork quality of this productive category may be affected by pre-slaughter stressors under conventional conditions.…”