Contents Of Pigs Research Articles

A new technique for sampling large amounts of caecal contents of pigs

(1985). A new technique for sampling large amounts of caecal contents of pigs. Archiv fur Tierernaehrung: Vol. 35, No. 3, pp. 175-181.

The usefulness of muscle fibre diameter in studies of the lean meat content of pigs

Samples of the longissimus dorsi muscle were removed by biopsy from 4 pigs at intervals during the period from weaning to 125 lb. live-weight. In parallel studies involving 127 pigs attempts were made to relate mean fibre diameter to indexes of lean meat content of a range of bacon pig carcasses but only poor correlations were obtained. It was concluded that fundamental knowledge of the structure of the longissimus dorsi is not yet sufficiently advanced to allow accurate predictions of this type to be made.

Estimation of protein, chemical fat and energy content in pigs

Complete chemical analyses of all body components of 20 Large White pigs were carried out. At the average live-weight of 90·3 kg. (empty body weight 86·5 kg.) the total protein content was found to be 12·7 kg. and that of the chemical fat 25·4 kg. The edible parts of the carcass (i.e. lean and separable fat) contained only 58·5% (range 55·2–61·3) of the total protein but as much as 85% of the total chemical fat. Simple and multiple correlations were computed between various carcass characters and protein, chemical fat and energy content. The results indicate that it may be possible to obtain fairly accurate estimates of the chemical composition and energy content of the edible parts of the carcass, of the whole carcass, and of the empty body by methods based on various systems of assessing the carcass quality.