Calves weaned on cow­calf operations throughout Arkansas even­ tually move on to stocker, feedlot and packer operations. Wide variations in carcass uniformity and consistency exist among these calves. Potential carcass problems can include inappro­ priate carcass size and weight, i nadequate tenderness, insufficient intramuscular fat (marbling) and excess external fat cover. Many of these quali...

Muscular and lean market lambs grow more efficiently and produce a meat product more preferred by the consumer compared to poorly muscled and fat lambs. Therefore, a case can be made for selection of breeding stock, especially within the terminal sire breeds like Suffolk and Hampshire, for desired carcass composition. Since breeding stock cannot be slaughtered in order to obtain carcass measure...

This study presents differences in rate of decomposition and insect succession between exposed carcasses on the soil surface and those enclosed within a vehicle following carbon monoxide (CO) poisoning. Nine 45-kg pigs were used as models for human decomposition. Six animals were sacrificed by CO gas, half of which were placed within the driver's side of separate enclosed vehicles and half were...

In this paper, weight, carcass dressing, weights of the primary cuts, weights of the physical components of the primary cuts, and weights of the main commercial cuts of 66 Purunã animals, of which 33 were bulls and 33 were steers were evaluated. These animals, with an average age of 19 months at the beginning of the experiment, were finished in a feedlot system during 116 days, and were fed wit...

The objective of this study was to test and validate electromagnetic scanning of whole pork carcasses in an on-line, integrated, industrial configuration. The electromagnetic (EM) scanner was installed in two pork processing facilities (Plant A and Plant B). Plant A was a small pork fabrication plant that further processed chilled pork carcasses. Carcasses were delivered to Plant A by refrigera...

The objectives of this study were to estimate effects of sire breed (Dorset, Finnsheep, Romanov, Texel, and Montadale), and dam breed (Composite III and Northwestern whiteface) on survival, growth, carcass, and composition traits of F1 lambs. Effects of mating season (August, October, and December) were estimated for survival and growth traits. Data were collected on 4,320 F1 lambs sired by 102...

Rusa deer are the only viable commercial tropical deer species for farming in the tropics because of their hardiness, adaptability and prolific characteristics. Twelve entire rusa stags were slaughtered according to halal procedure and used for carcass evaluation and cutability studies. Three carcass categories; large (46 to 55 kg), medium (36 to 45 kg) and small (25 to 35 kg) were developed fo...

Whole carcass rinse is the most common method used to determine Salmonella prevalence in broiler carcasses. However, there is a need to determine the carcass rinse sampling method that best measures the Salmonella status of a broiler carcass as it proceeds through processing, thus allowing the assessment of efficacy of interventions to meet Food Safety Inspection Services (FSIS) performance sta...

The establishment and evaluation of an assessment system to accredit sonographers for measuring the carcass traits of subcutaneous fat depths and longissimus muscle area (LMA) on potential breeding animals by real-time ultrasound is described. Repeatability of operators, variation between the animal's left and right sides, and variations in technique were assessed from measurements and repeat m...

Thirty-two Hubbard and 40 Egyptian Fayoumi (dual-purpose) chickens were slaughtered in series at 2-wk intervals between 2-8 wk and 2-10 wk of age, respectively. Genetic differences in the allometric fat growth equation constants were studied. Relative to total body fat (TBF), the breeds did not differ significantly in relative growth of non-carcass fat. The Fayoumi tended to lay down carcass fa...