A note on porcine skeletal muscle parameters and their possible use in early progeny testing

An ‘indicator muscle’ (m. flexor digiti V brevis) was removed in its entirety from several Large White and Landrace pigs of varying fat depth (measured over the eye-muscle area). The total muscle fibre number was measured in transverse sections for each muscle. Significant inverse relationships were found between this fibre number and fat depth measurements. These and other results suggest that fibre number is related to lean meat content. Fibre number was also shown to be highly correlated with fibre density and as thinner fibres (i.e. higher fibre density) are associated with more tender meat, fibre number may be associated with quality as well as quantity of meat.