Table 3. Effects of the lysine concentration of the diet of finishing pigs slaughtered at high body weights on physicochemical characteristics of their muscles postmortem1)

Item Barrows Gilts SEM p-value
Med-lys Low-lys Med-lys Low-lys Sex (S) Diet (D) S×D
Longissimus lumborum muscle
 CIE L* 49.8 49.3 49.3 49.7 0.6 0.96 0.89 0.50
 CIE a* 7.40 6.82 7.76 7.93 0.21 < 0.01 0.32 0.09
 CIE b* 1.86 1.73 2.55 2.66 0.18 < 0.01 0.96 0.52
 pH 5.86 5.79 5.77 5.74 0.05 0.20 0.40 0.69
 Drip loss (%) 1.17 1.12 1.06 1.28 0.17 0.87 0.61 0.41
 RW2) (%) 10.00 9.37 9.65 9.84 0.95 0.95 0.82 0.67
 Cooking loss (%) 26.8 26.4 26.0 26.2 0.9 0.58 0.90 0.73
 WBSF (kg/cm2) 3.66 3.21 3.30 3.21 0.09 0.04 < 0.01 0.04
 IMF (%) 3.33 3.17 2.91 3.35 0.29 0.68 0.63 0.30
Semitendinosus muscle
 CIE L* 43.7 46.2 46.4 47.3 1.0 0.07 0.11 0.43
 CIE a* 17.6 16.1 14.1 14.6 1.0 0.03 0.64 0.36
 CIE b* 5.71 5.47 4.93 5.92 0.45 0.71 0.41 0.18
 pH 6.22 6.24 6.23 6.06 0.06 0.17 0.22 0.11
 Drip loss (%) 0.82 0.82 0.79 0.68 0.07 0.21 0.46 0.42
 RW2) (%) 4.68 6.81 4.45 5.73 0.86 0.45 0.06 0.62
 Cooking loss (%) 24.5 25.3 24.6 26.8 1.1 0.49 0.19 0.56
 WBSF (kg/cm2) 3.90 4.04 4.07 4.16 0.07 0.05 0.13 0.72
 IMF (%) 6.14 5.80 6.05 6.10 0.45 0.82 0.74 0.67
Data are means of eight animals.
Percentage of water released from a muscle sample (w/w) squeezed between two thin plastic films pressed by a certain weight load as a quick assessment of the water holding capacity.
Med, medium; lys, lysine; RW, released water; WBSF, Warner-Bratzler shear force; IMF, intramuscular fat.