Lard and weight of piau and duroc pigs using generalized linear model

Abstract

The meat pig is among the oldest forms of human food, being the most consumed meat in the world. Brazil is the 4th largest producer and exporter of meat pig in world. The main objective of industrial pig farms is the production of carcasses with higher lean meat content. Reducing the lard of thickness and body fat plus the increase in lean mass production improved the quality of carcass. The live weight of pigs is influenced by the lard thickness, making it necessary to find a relation that explains the behavior of these metrics. To evaluate the relationship of lard thickness and live weight of pigs, generalized linear models were used. The animals were weighed in an electronic scale, model ID-M 300/4. To determine the lard thickness, measurements were made by ultrasonography using Lean Meater Renco Model®, 6 cm side to the spine, between the penultimate and the last rib, resulting in the average of the evaluations obtained in the two sides. It was observed that for Duroc pigs the generalized linear model with Gaussian distribution was the most adequate, whereas for Piau pigs the most suitable was the Gamma distribution model. Through the model a forecast for the lard of a pig of the Piau breed weighing 100 kg is on average 43.31 mm, whereas for Duroc pigs this forecast is 28.74 mm