BACKGROUND Obesity and emaciation in horses have major detrimental effects on health and morbidity, reproductive failure, work performance or carcass quality. Scoring is a current management tool used to assess and monitor equine body condition due to its simplicity and low cost. However, accurate assessment of obesity remains a challenge, even though a number of approaches have been tested, pa...

The association between carcass and ham traits in a pig population used to produce dry-cured ham was studied using canonical correlation analysis. The carcass traits examined were hot carcass weight (HCW), backfat thickness (BT) and loin depth (LD), and the ham traits studied were gross ham weight (GHW), trimmed ham weight (THW), ham inner layer fat thickness (HIFT), ham outer layer fat thickne...

Spanish x Boer (n = 16) and Spanish x Kiko (n = 18) wethers (7 mo) and bucklings (5 mo) were harvested under USDA inspection to evaluate the effect of dam breed on carcass traits of crossbred kids. Boer and Kiko dams, respectively, originated from five and seven seedstock farms. Each dam was purebred or fullblood (93.75 to 100%). Traits of interest included live weight and conformation score, c...

The aim of the present study was to evaluate the effect of cocoa husks feeding on liver composition of the Italian heavy pig. Cocoa husks are by-products derived from chocolate production and have a high content of proteins, lipids, and NDF. Cocoa husks are also rich in antioxidants, polyphenols in particular. Eight finishing pigs were divided into 2 groups: control group fed a traditional diet...

This study aimed to evaluate the performance, some carcass characteristics from feedlot lambs receiving sunflower crushed (SC) in the diet on partial replacement of soybean meal. The experimental design was randomized block with four levels of SC in the diet (0, 10, 20 and 30% of dry matter (DM)). There was a linear reduction of 0.02; 0.003; 0.003 and 0.17% for each percentage unit of added SC ...

Two commercial feedlot experiments were conducted to compare performance and carcass characteristics of feedlot heifers and steers using 2 implant strategies. In Exp. 1, heifers (n = 1,124; initial BW = 279 ± 5 kg) were administered either Revalor-IH [Intervet/ Schering Plough Animal Health, DeSoto, KS; 8 mg of estradiol (E2) and 80 mg of trenbolone acetate (TA)] or Synovex-H (Fort Dodge Animal...

The objective of this study was to describe genetic variability of pig carcass weight as a function of heat stress. Data included carcass weights of 23,556 crossbred pigs [Duroc x (Landrace x Large White)] raised on 2 farms in North Carolina and harvested from May 2005 through December 2006. Weather data were obtained from a weather station located about 20 km from the furthest farm. Weekly hea...

A primary genomic screen for quantitative trait loci (QTL) affecting carcass and growth traits was performed by genotyping 238 microsatellite markers on 185 out of 300 total progeny from a Bos indicus x Bos taurus sire mated to Bos taurus cows. The following traits were analyzed for QTL effects: birth weight (BWT), weaning weight (WW), yearling weight (YW), hot carcass weight (HCW), dressing pe...

The present work describes the effect of nutritive level on horse carcass traits and on meat quality. Eighteen male Italian Heavy Draught Horse (IHDH) breed foals were employed in the study. Soon after foaling they were randomly subdivided into three groups according to three nutritive level classes: 150%, 180% and 200% of maintenance requirements. Live weight, hot carcass weight and dressing p...

Postweaning growth, feed efficiency, and carcass traits were analyzed on 1,422 animals obtained by mating F1 cows to F1 (Belgian Blue x British breeds) or Charolais sires. Cows were obtained from mating Hereford, Angus, and MARC IIIHereford, 1/4 Angus, 1/4 Pinzgauer, and 1/4 Red Poll) dams to Hereford or Angus (British breeds), Tuli, Boran, Brahman, or Belgian Blue sires. Breed groups were fed ...