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Use of Electronic Meat Measuring Equipment to Estimate Body Composition in Swine¹

Shell Development Company, Modesto, CA 95352

Abstract

The Electronic Meat Measuring Equipment (EMME) has been evaluated regarding its usefulness to predict live animal or carcass composition in swine. Initial investigations indicated considerable variation in successive measurements for many individual pigs when walked through the instrument tunnel. This variation was associated with movement of the pig, both horizontal and vertical; the latter being the more influential. Construction of a crate to restrain and position the pigs was not helpful nor was anesthesia to produce recumbancy. Recumbant animals could be repetitively measured with great precision, but arousal followed by subsequent recumbancy produced highly variable results. This appears to result from the orientation of the animal as it settles in the crate. Carcasses could be precisely measured in a special crate. The EMME reading was highly correlated with animal weight. It was poorly correlated with a variety of carcass variables including carcass chemical composition after the EMME reading was adjusted for animal weight. We find this instrument to be of litte value in critical research situations wherein body composition is of interest in animals within a narrow range of body weight.

¹ The authors would like to thank Dr. E. R. Southam, California State Univ., Chico, CA for trimming the carcasses in Exp. 7A.

² Present address of author to whom correspondence should be addressed: Roman L. Hruska U.S. Meat Animal Research Center, USDA, ARS, P.O. Box 166, Clay Center, NE 6893 3.