The effect of slaughter weight on the carcass characteristics of pork with sex type as co-variable

Abstract

A study was conducted with 192 pigs of three sex types with treatments according to slaughter weight (65 kg to 144 kg). The main statistical differences observed were for slaughter weight with significant (P < 0.05) and highly significant (P < 0.01) differences describing more than 10% of variance observed for all characteristics (liveweight, warm carcass weight, dressing percentage, eye muscle area, subcutaneous fat thickness, intramuscular fat area, subcutaneous fat : eye muscle area, intramuscular fat : eye muscle area, fat thickness, muscle depth, carcass length, ham circumference, ham length and chest depth) measured. Sex differences (P < 0.05) were also observed for dressing percentage, fat measurements and muscle depth measured between the 5th and 6th lumbar vertebrae. Sex type differences, in all instances, accounted for 10% or less variance except for subcutaneous fat : eye muscle area ratio (18.47%). It was shown that although significant sex type differences (P < 0.05) existed; slaughter weight had the largest effect on carcass characteristics in the given circumstances accounting for most of the observed variance.