Carcass Characteristics and Meat Quality
Final live body weights at slaughter were recorded.
Hot carcass weights were obtained after slaughter just
before chilling. Loin eye area, back fat depth
measurement and dressing percentage, carcass lean
proportion calculations were measured according to the
method used by Yu (2004) [15]. Drip loss of loin
samples was determined by slightly modifying the
procedure first popularized by Kauffman (1986) [16].
Duplicate loin samples were trimmed to 5 cm×3 cm×2
cm size, blotted to remove the surface water, and
weighed to determine the initial loin weight. Samples
were vertically hung in air at 4 ℃, and the final loin
weight was determined after 24 h. The percentage of
drip loss was calculated by 100×(initial loin
weight–final loin weight)/final loin weight.