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The correlation of intramuscular fat content between muscles of the lamb carcass and the use of computed tomography to predict intramuscular fat percentage in lambs

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 April 2015

F. Anderson ,
D. W. Pethick  and
G. E. Gardner
F. Anderson*
Affiliation:
Australian Cooperative Research Centre for Sheep Industry Innovation, University of New England, Armidale, NSW 2351, Australia School of Veterinary and Life Sciences, Murdoch University, Murdoch, WA 6150, Australia
D. W. Pethick
Affiliation:
Australian Cooperative Research Centre for Sheep Industry Innovation, University of New England, Armidale, NSW 2351, Australia School of Veterinary and Life Sciences, Murdoch University, Murdoch, WA 6150, Australia
G. E. Gardner
Affiliation:
Australian Cooperative Research Centre for Sheep Industry Innovation, University of New England, Armidale, NSW 2351, Australia School of Veterinary and Life Sciences, Murdoch University, Murdoch, WA 6150, Australia
*
†E-mail: F.Anderson@murdoch.edu.au
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Abstract

Intramuscular fat (IMF) % contributes positively to the juiciness and flavour of lamb and is therefore a useful indicator of eating quality. A rapid, non-destructive method of IMF determination like computed tomography (CT) would enable pre-sorting of carcasses based on IMF% and potential eating quality. Given the loin muscle (longissimus lumborum) is easy to sample, a single measurement at this site would be useful, providing is correlates well to other muscles. To determine the ability of CT to predict IMF%, this study used 400 animals and examined 5 muscles from three sections of the carcass: from the fore-section the m. supraspinatus and m. infraspinatus, from the saddle-section the m. longissimus lumborum and from the hind-section the m. semimembranosus and m. semitendinosus. The average CT pixel density of muscle was negatively associated with IMF% and can be used to predict IMF% although precision in this study was poor. The ability of CT to predict IMF% was greatest in the m. longissimus lumborum (slope −0.07) and smallest in the m. infraspinatus (slope −0.02). The correlation coefficients of IMF% between the five muscles were variable, with the highest correlation coefficients evident between muscles of the fore section (0.67 between the m. supraspinatus and the m. infraspinatus) and the weakest correlations were between the muscle of the fore and hind section. The correlation between the m. longissimus lumborum to the other muscles was fairly consistent with values ranging between 0.34 and 0.40 (partial correlation coefficient). The correlation between the proportion of carcass fat and the IMF% of the five muscles varied and was greatest in the m. longissimus lumborum (0.41).

Keywords

intramuscular fatcomputed tomographylamblean meat yieldfatness
Type
Research Article
Information
animal , Volume 9 , Issue 7 , July 2015 , pp. 1239 - 1249
Copyright
© The Animal Consortium 2015 

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