Effect of weight and sex on intramuscular fat amounts in relation to the formation of selected carcass cuts in pigs

Abstract

The objective of this study was to examine the influence of weight and sex on fat amounts in relation to the formation of selected carcass cuts in final hybrid pigs commonly kept in the Czech Republic. During the experiment 123 hybrid pigs of various genotypes were tested. The pigs were slaughtered at an average weight of 120.4 kg and dissected in detail. The tested pigs were divided into 5 weight categories, while the tissue composition of ham, joint, shoulder and neck was monitored with emphasis on the assessment of IMF content. A decrease in the lean meat proportion was shown, as well as an increasing fat proportion with increasing weight: for the joint the difference was 4.19%, for the ham 3.9%, shoulder 3.0%, and neck 2.31%. With increasing weight, a moderate increase in intramuscular fat occurred, whereas the differences between group 1 and 5 were: 1.68% for the ham, 0.58% (shoulder), 0.4% (joint) and 0.37% (neck). Concerning the influence of sex, barrows had statistically insignificant intramuscular fat content compared with gilts (excluding the neck). As for the protein content in the monitored carcass cuts, no influence of live weight and sex was recorded.

Keywords

• pig
• meat
• intramuscular fat
• live weight
• sex