THE USE OF UREA DILUTION AND ULTRASONIC BACKFAT THICKNESS TO PREDICT THE CARCASS COMPOSITION OF LIVE LAMBS AND CATTLE

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Abstract
Thirty-eight lambs (22 rams, 16 ewes), 25 Holstein cows and 30 steers were evaluated ultrasonically for subcutaneous fat thickness. Urea space was also estimated, using the dilution principle, by a single injection of a known amount of urea and taking a single blood sample 12 min later. All lambs and cattle were slaughtered within 2 days and the half-carcasses were separated into fat, lean and bone. Urea space (R2 = 0.10) and fat thickness (R2 = 0.18) in lambs were poorly related to the weight of half-carcass lean tissue. Neither urea space nor fat thickness improved the level of explained variation in half-carcass lean tissue weight over that explained by liveweight alone (R2 = 0.73). Urea space showed a larger association with half carcass lean weight in cows (R2 = 0.55) than in steers (R2 = 0.14), but again did not improve the relationship provided by liveweight alone (R2 = 0.60). Fat thickness provided nonsignificant regressions (P < 0.05) with half-carcass lean weight both in cows and in steers. Liveweight was the dominant independent variable (R2 = 0.33) for predicting total fat in lamb half-carcasses; urea space (R2 = 0.08) and fat thickness (R2 = 0.13) did not improve the prediction given by liveweight alone. Fat thickness was poorly related to total fatness both in steers (R2 = 0.12) and in cows (nonsignificant regression). A multiple regression equation combining fat thickness and liveweight provided the best prediction of half-carcass fat in cows, whereas a similar equation with the addition of urea space gave the best prediction of half-carcass fat in steers. The measurement of urea space and fat thickness to predict the weight of carcass tissues (lean, fat) in live lambs and cattle over the weight (41.9 + 9.7 kg(SD) lambs, 624 ± 62.8 kg cows and 466 ± 63.2 kg steers) and fatness (19.9 ± 3.27% (SD) lambs, 21.9 ± 2.18% cows and 20.9 ± 3.98% steers) ranges studied was of limited value. Key words: Urea dilution, ultrasound, live animal evaluation, carcass composition