Simulation of giant fibre development in biopsy samples from pig longissimus muscle

The incidence of hyper-contracted giant fibres in pig postmortem skeletal muscle is closely related to poor meat quality in terms of pale, soft, and exudative pork. Detection of a predisposition to develop giant fibres in live pigs could help to predict pork quality and to exclude affected pigs from genetic selection. The abundance and proportion of giant fibres in longissimus muscle were highest in Piétrain followed by Landrace, Large White, and Leicoma pigs of market weight. The postmortem development of giant fibres could be successfully simulated in vitro incubating biopsy samples from longissimus muscle at 37°C for 60min. For repeated measurements on three samples the intraclass correlation coefficient for the number of giant fibres/cm(2) was ϑˆ(3)=0.69 for biopsy and ϑˆ(3)=0.87 for carcass samples. "Simulated" giant fibres exhibited ultrastructural changes in plasma membrane, myofibrils, mitochondria, and sarcoplasmatic reticulum as shown previously for giant fibres in carcass samples.