Data paper: Pig body composition during growth determined non-destructively or through dissection and intramuscular fat content in different anatomical locations

Abstract

Data from the body composition of 90 pigs from three crossbreeds (Duroc × (Landrace × Large White), Pietrain × (Landrace × Large White) and Landrace × Large White) obtained at four different moments during growth (30, 70, 100 and 120 kg BW) are presented. Moreover, a subsample of pigs at 30, 70 and 100 kg as well as all those of 120 kg were slaughtered. All left carcasses were cut following the EU reference cutting and some of them dissected, either through a simplified dissection (four main cuts) or a full dissection (all the cuts except head and front and hind feet). At each target BW, live pigs were scanned by computed tomography (CT), providing the volume associated with each Hounsfield value. In addition, several measures (area, thickness, etc.) were obtained from CT images at specific anatomical locations, in order to characterise the body composition. Carcass characteristics (fat and muscle thickness) were also obtained directly from the carcass after slaughter and the weight and intramuscular fat content of three ham muscles and three loin locations were determined. This information can be used to develop growth curves for different tissues and cuts and to understand tissue deposition at various growth stages, either globally across all animals or to compare genotypes. Also, it provides a valuable database for exploring the relationship between whole carcass composition and that of the individual cuts, since it provides both the weight of all the cuts and the different tissue weights from dissections. Moreover, differences between full and simplified dissection can be studied from the database. Intramuscular fat is an important quality trait that affects consumer acceptance of meat, both visually and in terms of eating quality. Usually, intramuscular fat is measured in one muscle, but the database provides information from six different muscle/locations in the pig carcass, allowing a deeper analysis of this attribute. All these data have been used in several publications, but it can be reused and reanalysed using alternative methodologies and for different purposes.