CT offers accuracy, as well as saving time in predicting carcass quality
Take Home Message: CT scanning accurately predicts carcass quality in beef joints. This information can be used in breeding programs or for industry benchmarking
CT scanning allows fast and accurate assessment of beef carcass composition with lower costs than physical dissection – the traditional method – and without damaging or devaluing the carcass.
“And this information is very valuable for research, and potentially for breeding programmes and beef industry benchmarking,” the SAC’s Elly Navajas told delegates at this year’s British Society of Animal Science annual conference.
She and her team from the SAC and the University of Bristol have completed a study to evaluate the accuracy of using X-ray computed tomography (CT) scanning for assessing beef primal cut and carcass composition in an independent dataset.
X-ray computed tomography (CT) scanning of live animals and carcasses provides a very accurate assessment of the weights of fat, muscle and bone in pigs and sheep. And although the limiting size of the CT gantry prevents CT scanning of live beef cattle, beef primal joints are small enough to be scanned.
This validation study was based on 462 primal cuts of eight Aberdeen Angus and 14 Limousin crossbred steers. These primal cuts were prepared 48 hours after slaughter and vacuum packed.
After CT scanning, primal cuts were fully dissected into fat, muscle and bone. The weights of muscle, fat and bone of the primal cuts were predicted, based on tissue areas and densities and the thickness of slices.
“And we found that the weights of the tissues measured by CT and dissection were very similar,” said Dr Navaja. “Average differences ranged from -10g to 60g, and 10g and 400g for primal cut and carcasses, respectively.
“In fact, the results obtained in this validation study show high accuracies of CT scanning. Strong associations between CT and dissection weights were also found for total carcass composition.
“These values are similar to, or better than, those obtained using CT in other species and better when compared to other alternative methods used in beef to assess carcass composition.”
To view proceedings of all summaries presented at the Annual Conference 2009 http://www.bsas.org.uk/Publications/Annual_Conference_Proceedings/ To view all Powerpoint presentations http://www.bsas.org.uk/Members_Area/ For further information contact: BSAS on 0131 445 4508 or bsas@sac.ac.uk
