Comparação entre diferentes metodologias de mensuração da área de olho-de-lombo e espessura de gordura subcutânea de bovinos de corte

Abstract

Brazil is the second largest meat producer in the world, being responsible for 17% of total beef production in the world, where 3% of total exported beef comes from the State of Rio Grande do Sul. Brazilian beef industry is suffering deep changes, including the modernization of production techniques. Characteristics related to both production efficiency and quality of the meat should be considered, among them there are those that can be assessed directly on the carcass, such as rib-eye area (REA) and subcutaneous fat thickness (SFT). The aim of this paper is to compare different methods of rib-eye area and fat thickness measurement in beef cattle of different ages and genetic groups from various regions of Rio Grande do Sul. The evaluations were made by different evaluators through measurements by the program Adobe Acrobat Reader®, using millimetric grid and caliper, comparing the effectiveness of different methodologies used. The study was performed using the research infrastructure of Embrapa Pecuária Sul, located in Bagé - Rio Grande do Sul, in the Science and Meat Technology Laboratory. The total number of evaluations for this work was 167 for rib-eye area and 100 evaluations for subcutaneous fat thickness. The data were submitted to Pearson correlation test, which demonstrated that the methodologies are highly correlated, if different evaluators were alternate, there would be no difference in the outcome of the evaluations. All methods where shown to be accurate if applied properly, however, the method of the millimetric grid (REA) and caliper (SFT) would be the most suitable due to its economic viability and ease application in the industrial plant without harming the production flow.