Prediction of meat quality in live pigs using stress-susceptible and stress-resistant animals

A new in-vivo procedure for predicting the potential meat quality in live pigs was devised using stress-susceptible (halothane positive) and stress-resistant (halothone negative) pigs. The potential meat quality in live pigs was determined using small biopsy samples of M. longissimus dorsi (LD). Meat quality was assessed by the combined measurements of pH and water-holding capacity (WHC) on the 12 000 g supernatant after incubation of 500 mg biopsy LD muscle with an equal volume of 150 mm KCl at 39°C for 45 min. With the LD muscles of halothane positive (n = 37) and halothane negative (n = 55) pigs, high correlations (r = -0·854) were observed between the supernatant (i.e. fluid) pH and WHC of the biopsy samples, between fluid pH of the biopsy samples and 1-h post-mortem (pH(60)) LD muscles (r = 0·951), and between pH(60) and WHC (r = -0·956). The experimental data show that our in-vivo test can differentiate halothane positive from halothane negative pigs and can also predict the potential meat quality in live pigs. The test could be applied to select pigs with differences in WHC to improve meat quality.