In vivo estimation of sheep carcass composition using real time ultrasound with two probes of 5 and 7.5 Mhz and image analysis

• Autor(a) principal: Silva, Severiano
• Data de Publicação: 2006
• Outros Autores: Afonso, J.J., Santos, Virgínia, Monteiro, António Cardoso, Guedes, Cristina, Azevedo, Jorge Manuel Teixeira de, Silva, Arnaldo Alves Dias da
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10348/2307
• topic: carcass composition; frequency probe; sheep; ultrasound

Ultrasonic measurements were taken on 46 sheep using a real-time ultrasound machine equipped with 2 probes (5 and 7.5 MHz). Measurements of subcutaneous fat, thickness (SC) and muscle LM depth (MD) and area (MA) were taken at 2 locations: over the 13th thoracic vertebra (SC13, MD13, and MA 13, respectively) and at the interval between the third and fourth lumbar vertebrae (SC34, MD34, and MA34, respectively). Fat thickness was also measured over the third sternebra of the sternum. The relation- ship between carcass and in vivo ultrasound measure- ments was high for all the measurements (rZ between 0.54 and 0.96, P < o.on Concerning MD and SC, the 7.5 MHz probe estimates were consistently more pre- cise than the 5-MHz estimates (r2 increased between 0.09 and 0.13), but the reverse occurred with the MA estimates, although to a lesser extent. Estimates of carcass composition for muscle, subcutaneous fat, inter- muscular fat, internal fat, and total fat based on BW explained a large amount of variation in muscle (87%), subcutaneous fat (85%), intermuscular fat (79%), inter- nal fat (74%), and total fat (87%). In most cases (55 of 70) the introduction of one ultrasound measurement in addition to BW in the multiple regression equations further improved the explanation of variation for weight of carcass tissues, internal fat, and total fat. For carcass muscle estimation, the ultrasound measure- ments of muscle provided an increase ofr2 between 0.05 and 0.10 <P < 0.01). The SC13 and SC34 gave the best improvements in estimating subcutaneous tat, inter- muscular tat, internal fat, and total fat (1'2 increased between 0.05 and 0.17; P < 0.01). Prediction of the pro- portions of the carcass components (internal and total fat from BWl was clearly lower than the prediction of the absolute amount.s of these traits. Inclusion of one or more ultrasound measurements in addition to B\V increased the predictive ability of the equations. Both probes were useful to estimate carcass muscle depth and area and fat depth, but the 7.5-MHz probe showed a greater ability to estimate depth. For all traits, the stepwise procedure demonstrated that the best fit was obtained with BW and one or more ultrasound measure- ment with the 7.5-MHz probe