should lead to a correlated increase in MC and WHC. In this study, the BF was positively correlated with MC (0.786), WHC (0.904) and a* (0.455). According to Suzuki et al. (2005), as the intramuscular fat content increases, the WHC will also increase. Moreover, WHC was strong positively correlated with ADG (0.875). These findings showed that pork from faster-growing pigs has higher WHC. The MS was positively correlated with LP (0.307) and negatively correlated with BF (‒0.414). These results showed that meat from leaned and less backfat animals had better MS. The shear force was positively correlated with ADG (0.478), LMA (0.516) and LP (0.503) but negatively correlated with BF (‒0.533). These results showed that when selection favors production traits such as ADG, BF, LMA, and LP, it will favored the shear force of meat, which is a good indication of meat tenderness. These findings contrast the result reported by Suzuki et al. (2005), who found that tenderness was negatively correlated with ADG (‒0.44).
Phenotypic correlations