Studies on carcass performance and meat quality and its changes with body weight of finishing pigs

Carcass performance and meat quality of 31 finishing pigs was studied.And the changes of carcass and meat quality as body weight changed were analyzed .The objectives were to investigate appropriate slaughter weight of finishing pigs.Results indicated that lean percent of the stage of 92-95 kg slaughter weight was the higher than that of others,with 61.17 %,increased by 4.83 %(P0.05),11.83 %(P0.05)and 8.84 %(P0.05)as compared with the other three groups,respectively.When the slaughter weight was 107-109 kg ,the meat quality was fine,pH was 6.07,meat color and marbling score were 3.13 and 3.33,intramuscular fat content of muscles was 3.89 %,and water loss was18.91 % .In the stage of 92-95 kg body weight,there were significant linear regression between carcass length,lean percent and body weight.But there were no significant liner correlation between the other traits and body weight.Comprehensive evaluation showed that the reasonable slaughter weight of finishing pigs was 92-95 kg when lean percent was stressed ,107-109 kg was selected when meat quality was stressed ,and 95-98 kg was selected when carcass performance and meat qualities were stressed.