A total of 85 Berkshire pigs (44 gilts and 41 castrated male pigs) were evaluated.
Pigs were fed a commercial diet following recommendations
of the National Research Council (NRC, 1998).
The treatment conditions were the same for all animals before and after
slaughter, and all treatment conditions and experimental procedures
were approved by the Animal Care and Ethnic/Welfare Committee of Korea University.
Pigs were transported to a commercial abattoir, and were slaughtered at a slaughterhouse in two batches (40 and 45 pigs per slaughter batch) during the winter period, using standard
procedures under the supervision of the Korean grading service for animal products.
Animals were always herded using pig boards and without using stick or electrical goad.
The slaughter plant employed electrical stunning, after which pigs were exsanguinated, and used a traditional scalding-singeing process.
At 45 min postmortem, muscle samples were taken from the longissimus thoracis muscle at the 8th
thoracic vertebra.
The muscle samples were cut into 0.5×0.5×1.0 cm pieces, promptly frozen in isopentane cooled by liquid nitrogen, and stored at−80 °C until analysis for MHC isoforms.
After 24 h of chilling in a 4 °C cold room, the pork loins (the 10–13th thoracic vertebrae)
were taken for meat quality measurements and immediately stored at −20 °C without chopping until measurements of IMF content, fatty acid composition, and sensory quality were made.