Analysis of Body Composition Changes of Swine During Growth and Development

Purdue University 2000 Swine Research Report. Mathematical models of pig growth can be developed from data which quantify the accretion rates of empty body protein, lipid, moisture, and ash. Accretion of carcass lean and fat tissue is of primary interest because the quantity and ratio of these two components determine the economic value of the animal. Compositional changes of carcass lean and fat during growth are needed to understand the changes in the nutritional profile of pork products. Comprehensive data, required for growth modeling collected on the same pigs, are very limited in the literature. Our objective for this analysis was to quantify the mass and composition of empty body and carcass components, and to develop equations that describe the growth of each component during development.