Authors : Marcelino Becerril-Herrera and Daniel Mota-Rojas
Abstract: The use of kitchen waste or leftovers in animal feeding is limited basically by its high nutritious variability and for sanitary reasons; although it represents an option in the artisan pig raising system, its effect on the carcass quality has not been evaluated yet. In this study 50 hybrid pigs from a family pig farm were evaluated; animals were distributed by sex at random: T1: 15 females and T2: 15 castrated males, both groups fed with left-overs; T3: 10 females and T4: 10 castrated males, fed with balanced commercial food. Tukey test was used to determine significant differences between the treatments?. Pigs fed with leftovers had less height and less corporal length and a high leg development; an increase in the backfat covering and smaller development of the Longissimus dorsi muscle as well. Besides, these animals had carcasses of smaller length, compared with pigs fed with balanced commercial feed, which showed carcasses of better quality, as well as higher values in the viscera. Contrary to what was expected, in barrows fed with kitchen leftovers the backfat deposition was favored in comparison with the females fed in the same way.
Marcelino Becerril-Herrera and Daniel Mota-Rojas , 2005. Effect of Kitchen Leftovers on Body Measurements and Pork Carcass Quality . Journal of Food Technology, 3: 263-268.