Samples of the liver, kidney and heart were obtained within 1 h
post mortem and frozen at −80 °C. Carcasses were chilled for 24 h at
2–3 °C and then re-weighed and split into two equal halves (left and
right) using an electric saw. The right half carcass was weighed and
cut into five primal cuts; neck, shoulder, breast-flank, loin and leg
(Colomer-Rocher, Morand-Fehr, & Kirton, 1987). The cutswereweighed
and expressed as a percentage of the totalweight of the right half carcass.
Each cut was dissected into lean meat, bone, subcutaneous fat and
intermuscular fat. All meat quality measurements were made on the
left half carcass.