The performance of a visual image analysis (VIA) system was tested with regards to its potential to determine in vivo carcass composition and conformation, either alone, or in conjunction with other in vivo measures such as live weight and backfat depth. Pigs of both sexes of a commercial type were reared and slaughtered at weights ranging from 50 to 120 kg. Feeding was ad libitum on diets rang...

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of dietary betaine over a range of concentrations (between 0 and 0.5%) on growth and body composition in young feed-restricted pigs. Betaine is associated with decreased lipid deposition and altered protein utilization in finishing pigs, and it has been suggested that the positive effects of betaine on growth and carcass composition may be gr...

A total of 144 male crossbred calves were allocated to four management treatments (bulls; steers; bulls implanted with zeranol at 100 d of age and re-implanted at 69, 93 and 56 d thereafter; bulls implanted with zeranol at 168 d of age and re-implanted at 93 and 56 d thereafter), and two pre-slaughter shipping treatments (minimum pre-slaughter stress with cattle shipped and slaughtered within 4...

Accurate prediction of meat yield in live animals may allow more efficient genetic improvement of meat yield in farm-raised catfish. An initial trial with 30 channel catfish demonstrated significant correlations among weight-adjusted residuals for muscle area measured from transverse ultrasound images and transverse sections at five locations along the trunk musculature (r = 0.30 to 0.70). Rela...

Dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry (DXA) was used as a noninvasive method to measure the composition of pig carcasses. A total of 181 half-carcasses (10 to 51 kg, from pigs slaughtered at approximately 30, 60, 90, and 120 kg) were scanned using a Lunar (Madison, WI) DPX-L densitometer. The DXA measurements of fat, lean, bone mineral, and total tissue mass were compared with chemical analysis for ...

A joint growth-carcass analysis was conducted to develop equations for predicting carcass quality traits associated with variation in growth path of crossbred cattle. During a four-year period (1994-1997) of the Australian "Southern Crossbreeding Project", mature Hereford cows (r = 581) were mated to 97 sires of Jersey, Wagyu, Angus, Hereford, South Devon, Limousin, and Belgian Blue breeds, res...

Abstract The aims of this study were to determine the prevalence carcass lesions in slaughtered pigs and quantify their relationships with different animal characteristics, pre-slaughter factors, blood measurements, performance indices, composition meat quality traits. Data was recorded for 30 journeys referring 1080 market-weight that originated from 15 commercial small-scale finishing farms. ...

This experiment was carried out to study the effect of the inclusion of a yeast culture in the diet of feeder dairy calves on their growth and carcass characteristics. Thirty male Friesian calves were randomly allocated to two groups of 15 each (treatment and control). The calves were fed a total mixed ration for a period of 294 days and then slaughtered to obtain carcass measurements. The yeas...