Pork Quality and Genetic Selection

North Carolina State University Swine Genetics Research from 1998-2000. Defining economic breeding objectives for pork quality traits can become a difficult task. Not only do the various segments of the U.S. pork chain have different perceptions and requirements of quality these definitions of superior quality can in certain cases be antagonistic. In addition, the income and expense associated with quality measures are not currently observed at the farm level. The inability to measure meat quality in the live animal and the difficulty associated with routine carcass measurement also limits the opportunity for meat quality measures to be routinely included in the breeding objective.