Abstract
Correlation between the muscle fiber diameter (MFD) of Longissimus dorsi muscles and some characteristics of pork was histologically studied with 34 hogs of Kagoshima Berkshire (KB) and Landrace (L) breeds which were kept at Kagoshima Prefectural Animal Industry Experiment Station under the same conditions. The hogs were fed with some restrictions or ad libitum by groups and a few each of them were slaughtered when their body weights reached 90, 100, and 110kg.
Tissue sections were prepared by the normal paraffin embedding method. The MFDs were determined microscopically.
The results of the F-test with the MFD by breeds, sexes, body weights at slaughtering and feeding methods revealed that the mean MFDs of KB and L were respectively 46.50μ and 56.17μ and that the MFD of LB was smaller than that of L with statistical significance at 1% level. No significant difference was noted between the two groups by sexes, carcass weights, or feeding methods. However, KB showed differences close to that with significance between the 90kg and 100kg slaughter groups and between the 100kg and 110kg slaughter groups, and a trend was noted that the larger the body weights at slaughter the larger was the MFD.
Studies on the relationship between MFD and meat quality parameters, especially between MFD and water-holding capacity or inter-muscular fat content, revealed that a correlation existed with a 5% level of significance, which indicated the smaller the MFD the better was the water-holding capacity in the gilts of KB group which were fed ad libitum. A relationship close to significant correlation could be noted in the groups of castrated boars. Another correlation was noted in the groups of L gilts that the smaller the MFD the higher was the intermuscular fat content with significance of 5% level.
