Carcass quality, leather and wool quality Flashcards
What is carcass quality?
It’s not the same as meat quality
Assesment of different traits of a carcass right before or after slaughter
Payment to producers is based on carcass quality and not meat quality
What are measures of carcass quality?
Category
Cattle: age, gender
pigs: ready-to-slaughter, sows
Carcass weight
Warm, weighed max. 60 min postmortem
Fatness
Subjective (cattle/sheep) and objective (pigs) measurements
Dressing percentage
Carcass weight as % of live weight
Lean proportion
Subjective (cattle/sheep) and objective (pigs) measurements
CH-TAX, EUROP categorization for cattle
Dressing percentage
Carcass weight as % of live weight
Dressing percentage
Carcass weight as % of live weight
Not so important for payment or carcass quality but useful information for the farmer
Example: high fiber diet for pigs led to a greater weight of intestines -> lower carcass weight
Lean proportion
Subjective classification in cattle & lambs
- based on CH-TAX in Switzerland
- EUROP system in EU
- “Neutral judging”
Objective classification in pigs using Autofom
Measurements of fatness
p. 19
Scale from 1 to 5 where one is no fat covering and 5 is overall fat cover
ca. 3 is optimal
Lean proportion - effect of genetics
Number of muscle fibers -> meat yield
- Number of cells determined before birth (genetically)
- Fusion from precursor cells
- Genetic selection criteria based on total number of fibers
Large number of cells in muscle
- Slaughter age: only enlargment of cuts
- Breed/line/origin
- Less abnrmalities in meat quality
- high muscle and meat retention potentail
Fatness - effect of genetics
Number of fat cells -> level of fatness, not fully independent from lean proportion
Numbers of cells increases at the start of animal growth
Gender: femalse ahve greater fatness than males, castrates in pigs get fatter and leander in cattle compared with female
in later stages mostly increase of cell size
- explains part of fatness which is determined by genetics
- with increasing slaughter age fatness increases
What is “Doppellender” or double muscling?
Mutation in myostatin gene leads to hyperplasia
s. 31
Positive aspects of double muscling
higher carcass wuality
higher proportion of meat
lower proportion of fat and bone
good sensory quality
negative aspects of double muscling
more susceptible to respiratory disease, urolithiasis, lameness, nutritional stress, heat and dystocia
birth problems - high birthweight
Lean proportion - effect of feeding
level of increase limited by the fixed genetic protein retention potential
declines with energy deficiency
declines with metabolic protein deficiency
- deficient protein supply
- imbalances in protein: energy ration, AA imbalance
Antinutritional factors
Antinutritional factors
Saponins
Tannins
Protease inhibitors
Alkaloids
Non protein amino acids
Lectins
Fatness - effect of feeding
Increasing feeding itensity -> increasing fatness w/o additional meat formation
Lebel of energy supply
- deficiency and excess have similar effect
Metabolic protein deficiency results indirectly in an increased carcass fatness
Excessive N in poultry and pigs somewhat reduced carcass fatness
slides 42 - 49
Effect of husbandry on carcass quality
Cold:
Carcasses leaner at the same energy supply
Carcasses fatter when same daily gains are achieved
Heat:
Somewhat increased carcass fatness and lower daily gains
