• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.15 no.11
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• pp.1622-1633
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• 2002

The effects of tuna oil supplementation (0, 1, 2 and 3%) to pig diets on growth and carcass yield as well as meat quality were determined in 40 crossbred pigs. Animals were fattened from 30 to 90 kg of live-weight. Twenty-four hours after slaughter, following various early- and late-post mortem measurements, loin, backfat and belly were prepared from the carcasses. Bacon was produced from the belly part by curing and smoking. Neither performance (feed intake, daily gains, feed conversion efficiency) nor carcass quality (slaughter weight, dressing percentage, lean percentage, nutrient composition of the loin) were significantly affected by tuna oil supplementation. Tuna oil also had no clear effects on early- and late-post mortem meat quality traits, water-holding capacity and tenderness of the M. longissiumus dorsi (LD). Colour traits of LD and backfat, and backfat firmness were not significantly affected by tuna oil, either. However, there was a certain trend to elevated fat contents of LD (and bacon), but not of backfat, with increasing levels of tuna oil in feed. Pigs receiving elevated proportions of tuna oil expressed lower VLDL cholesterol and triglyceride concentrations in blood plasma, whereas the cholesterol content of LD, backfat and bacon did not reflect this trend. Effects of tuna oil on fatty acids in LD, backfat and bacon were often small in extent, except those concerning the long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids. With 3% tuna oil in the diet, the contents of the particularly desired omega-3 fatty acids, C20:5 and C22:6, were 0.1 and 0.2 g/kg in LD. The corresponding values for backfat and bacon were 2.6 and 12.6 g/kg, and 1.3 and 9.2 g/kg, respectively. Tuna oil supplementation was associated with significant adverse effects on flavour and overall acceptance of bacon (not significant in LD although numerically the same trend was noted), but these effects on sensory ratings were limited in extent. Also shelf life of the products, determined as TBA value after different storage periods at $4^{\circ}C$ in LD, backfat and bacon, was significantly reduced. Overall, the present study suggests that omega-3 fatty acids may be enriched in pork by feeding tuna oil with few undesired side-effects, particularly those on sensory perception and shelf life, suggesting immediate consumption of the products is advisable. Most economically important traits (performance, slaughter and physical meat quality) remained unaffected.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.25 no.11
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• pp.1529-1539
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• 2012

A whole genome association (WGA) study was performed to detect significant polymorphisms for meat quality traits in an $F_2$ cross population (N = 478) that were generated with Korean native pig sires and Landrace dams in National Livestock Research Institute, Songwhan, Korea. The animals were genotyped using Illumina porcine 60k SNP beadchips, in which a set of 46,865 SNPs were available for the WGA analyses on ten carcass quality traits; live weight, crude protein, crude lipids, crude ash, water holding capacity, drip loss, shear force, CIE L, CIE a and CIE b. Phenotypes were regressed on additive and dominance effects for each SNP using a simple linear regression model, after adjusting for sex, sire and slaughter stage as fixed effects. With the significant SNPs for each trait (p<0.001), a stepwise regression procedure was applied to determine the best set of SNPs with the additive and/or dominance effects. A total of 106 SNPs, or quantitative trait loci (QTL) were detected, and about 32 to 66% of the total phenotypic variation was explained by the significant SNPs for each trait. The QTL were identified in most porcine chromosomes (SSCs), in which majority of the QTL were detected in SSCs 1, 2, 12, 13, 14 and 16. Several QTL clusters were identified on SSCs 12, 16 and 17, and a cluster of QTL influencing crude protein, crude lipid, drip loss, shear force, CIE a and CIE b were located between 20 and 29 Mb of SSC12. A pleiotropic QTL for drip loss, CIE L and CIE b was also detected on SSC16. These QTL need to be validated in commercial pig populations for genetic improvement in meat quality via marker-assisted selection.

• Journal of Animal Science and Technology
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• v.58 no.4
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• pp.14.1-14.9
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• 2016

Background: Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPARG), CCAAT/enhancer binding protein alpha (CEBPA) and retinoid X receptor alpha (RXRA) are nuclear transcription factors that play important roles in regulation of adipogenesis and fat deposition. The objectives of this study were to characterise the variability of these three candidate genes in a mixed sample panel composed of several cattle breeds with different meat quality, validate single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in a local crossbred population (Angus - Hereford - Limousin) and evaluate their effects on meat quality traits (backfat thickness, intramuscular fat content and fatty acid composition), supporting the association tests with bioinformatic predictive studies. Results: Globally, nine SNPs were detected in the PPARG and CEBPA genes within our mixed panel, including a novel SNP in the latter. Three of these nine, along with seven other SNPs selected from the Single Nucleotide Polymorphism database (SNPdb), including SNPs in the RXRA gene, were validated in the crossbred population (N = 260). After validation, five of these SNPs were evaluated for genotype effects on fatty acid content and composition. Significant effects were observed on backfat thickness and different fatty acid contents (P < 0.05). Some of these SNPs caused slight differences in mRNA structure stability and/or putative binding sites for proteins. Conclusions: PPARG and CEBPA showed low to moderate variability in our sample panel. Variations in these genes, along with RXRA, may explain part of the genetic variation in fat content and composition. Our results may contribute to knowledge about genetic variation in meat quality traits in cattle and should be evaluated in larger independent populations.

• Journal of Animal Science and Technology
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• v.50 no.4
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• pp.437-444
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• 2008

Pneumonia is one of the important diseases in commercial pig. In order to delineate the relationships with pneumonia and productions traits, five different economic traits including carcass weight(CW), backfat thickness(BF), meat quality(MQ), carcass characteristics(CC) and pork belly thickness(PB) were measured in 6,362 commercial pigs. Significant differences were observed in all the traits with pneumonia(P<0.01). Carcass weight and backfat thickness decreased significantly as the symptom of pneumonia was severed (P<0.01). Also, when the pneumonia was severed, the carcass characteristics and meat quality became worse compared with normal unaffected animals(P<0.01). In case of pork belly thickness, the significant decrease was observed in pneumonia infected animals compared with normal animals(P<0.01). Based on this study, the pneumonia infection affects most of the important economic traits in pigs and it is ultimately needed to pay more attention to prevent this disease.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.468-474
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• 2006

Real time ultrasound data was generated on 10,596 live Hanwoo cows to study genetic variation on ultrasonic beef quality traits and to assess the best model to estimate genetic parameters on these traits. Pedigree stacking and data validation was done using the SAS statistical software and the genetic parameter estimates were obtained by EM-REML algorithm. Out of the five different multi-trait mixed animal models constructed, the optimal model included fixed effects of herd, year-season-appraisal, body condition score, linear and quadratic covariates for chest girth, the linear covariate effect of age and the random animal and residual effect of the five models studied. The heritability of longissimus muscle area (LMA), $12^{th}$ rib measurement of back fat thickness (BF) and marbling score (MS) was 0.11, 0.17 and 0.15, respectively. Genetic correlation of LMA vs. BF, LMA vs. MS and BF vs. MS was -0.15, 0.06 and 0.61, respectively. The results showed presence of genetic variation in these ultrasonic beef quality traits in Hanwoo cows and suggest that the selection of Hanwoo cows may be possible by performing ultrasonic scans on live animals, which will ultimately be helpful in reducing the generation interval and the cost of selection procedure.

• Journal of Animal Reproduction and Biotechnology
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• v.35 no.3
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• pp.239-244
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• 2020

Meat and carcass quality attributes are important factors influencing consumer preference and profitability in the pork industry. Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) are essential for livestock breeding and improvement. In the present study, the pig Perilipin 2 (PLIN2) gene was characterized with the aim of detecting genetic variation at these loci in relation to economic traits in Berkshire pigs. Four SNPs (G6714C, G6813A, G10340A, and G10632A) were detected in this studied. Statistical analysis indicated that G6714C was significantly associated with the National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) color score, G6813A, and G10340A significantly affected NPPC color score and NPPC marbling score, and G10632A significantly affected backfat thickness (BF) (p < 0.05). Therefore, the molecular markers used in the present study might provide a useful basis for identification and improvement of traits in the Berkshire pigs.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.4 no.4
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• pp.305-328
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• 1991

Pig breeding programs have been very successful in the improvement of animals by the simple expedient of focusing on a few traits of economic importance, particularly growth efficiency and leanness. Further reductions in leanness may become more difficult to achieve, due to reduced genetic variation, and less desirable, due to adverse correlated effects on meat and eating quality. Best linear unbiased prediction (BLUP) of breeding values makes possible the incorporation of data from many sources and increases the value of including traits such as sow performance in the breeding objective. Advances in technology, such as electronic animal identification, electronic feeders, improved ultrasonic scanners and automated data capture at slaughter houses, increase the number of sources of information that can be included in breeding value predictions. Breeding program structures will evolve to reflect these changes and a common structure is likely to be several or many breeding farms genetically linked by A.i., with data collected on a number of traits from many sources and integrated into a single breeding value prediction using BLUP. Future developments will include the production of a porcine gene map which may make it possible to identify genes controlling economically valuable traits, such as those for litter size in the Meishan, and introgress them into nucleus populations. Genes identified from the gene map or from other sources will provide insight into the genetic basis of performance and may provide the raw material from which transgenic programs will channel additional genetic variance into nucleus populations undergoing selection.

• Food Science of Animal Resources
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• v.31 no.5
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• pp.684-692
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• 2011

The quality attributes of thigh meat from a certified meat-type commercial Korean native chicken (WoorimatdagTM, WM) and a commercial broiler (Ross, CB) raised under the same environmental conditions, were compared. One-d-old, mixedsex WM (200), and 200 broilers (Ross, CB) each were randomly assigned to floor pens (20 chickens per pen). The production stages (I, II, and III) were selected based on similar live weight. The crude fat contents of WM thigh meat were lower than those of CB. WM thigh meat contained higher stearic and arachidonic acid contents but lower palmitoleic and oleic acid contents compared to those of CB. The thigh meat color CIE $L^*$- and CIE $b^*$-values of WM were lower, but inosine-5'-monophosphate content was higher in WM than CB in whole production stages. WM thigh meat showed higher collagen content, hardness, springiness, gumminess, and chewiness than CB. In sensory evaluation, odor, taste, and overall acceptance were higher while color was lower in WM. Based on these results, it can be concluded that even if commercial broilers are raised under the same environmental conditions as WM, the unique quality attributes of WM thigh meat are distinctively unique.

• Animal Bioscience
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• v.34 no.10
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• pp.1684-1694
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• 2021

Objective: This study investigated the association between feed efficiency, physicochemical properties, flavor precursors and biomolecules in the thigh meat of Korat (KR) chickens. Methods: The feed intake and body weight of individual male KR chickens were recorded from 1 to 10 weeks old to calculate the individual residual feed intake (RFI) of 75 birds. At 10 weeks of age, chickens with the 10 highest (HRFI) and lowest RFI (LRFI) were slaughtered to provide thigh meat samples. The physicochemical properties (ultimate pH, water holding capacity [WHC], drip loss) and flavor precursors (guanosine monophosphate, inosine monophosphate (IMP), adenosine monophosphate and inosine) were analyzed conventionally, and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy was used to identify the composition of biomolecules (lipids, ester lipids, amide I, amide II, amide III, and carbohydrates) and the secondary structure of the proteins. A group t-test was used to determine significant differences between mean values and principal component analysis to classify thigh meat samples into LRFI and HRFI KR chickens. Results: The physicochemical properties of thigh meat samples from LRFI and HRFI KR chickens were not significantly different but the IMP content, ratios of lipid, lipid ester, protein (amide I, amide II) were significantly different (p<0.05). The correlation loading results showed that the LRFI group was correlated with high ratios of lipids, lipid esters, collagen content (amide III) and beta sheet protein (rg loading >0.5) while the HRFI group was positively correlated with protein (amide I, amide II), alpha helix protein, IMP content, carbohydrate, ultimate pH and WHC (rg loading >0.5). Conclusion: The thigh meat from chickens with different RFI differed in physiochemical properties affecting meat texture, and in the contents of flavor precursors and biomolecules affecting the nutritional value of meat. This information can help animal breeders to make genetic improvements by taking more account of traits related to RFI.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.17 no.9
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• pp.1223-1226
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• 2004

Previously candidate gene approach revealed estrogen receptor (ESR) locus was associated with increased litter size. In this study, PvuII polymorphisms of ESR gene was detected by PCR-RFLP, and ESR locus was evaluated for its association with reproductive tracts components in the Large $White{\times}Meishan$ ($LW{\times}M$) F2 offspring. Ninety seven gilts with reproductive tracts components records and 136 offspring with performance traits records were genotyped and the results were used to estimate allele substitution effects. The results showed that two alleles (A and B) were identified, and 121 bp fragments were observed for the AA genotype and 65 bp and 56 bp fragments for the BB genotype; the length of uterine body (LUB) of BB gilts were significantly shorter than AA gilts', the additive effect was -1.762 cm; the uterine weight (UW) of AB gilts were significantly lighter than AA gilts' with the additive effect -18.058 g; no significant associations of ESR alleles with ovulation rate (OR), length of uterine horn (LUH), length of uterine cervix (LUC), weight of two ovaries (OW), volume of uterine lumen (VUL), length of oviduct (LO) were observed. BB genotypes gilts need significantly less days to 100 kg ($D_{100kg}$) than AA genotypes (p<0.01), the additive effect was per copy of B allele. Allele B is also favorable for average daily gain (ADG), with additive effect 0.015 kg/d (p<0.05). There was no difference between genotypes for backfat thickness at the 13th rib (SF13), loin meat height (ELMH), and loin meat percentage was estimated (ELMP), individual birth weight (IBW) and teat number (TN).