EFFECT OF TWO DIFFERENT FLOOR SPACE ALLOCATIONS ON THE CARCASS CHARACTERISTICS IN LARGE WHITE YORKSHIRE GROWING PIGS

The present study was conducted to find out the effect of floor space allocations on the carcass and meat quality of growing pigs. Twenty Large White Yorkshire piglets with 3-4 months age and average body wt of 18 kg were selected from the pig farm for this study. The piglets were uniformly dived into two groups i.e. To group (Open area along with covered area or Control group) as per IS recommended floor space of 1.8 square meter per piglet (0.9 covered and open area each) and Tc group (Covered area only) of 0.9 square meter per piglet). At the age of 24 weeks, three barrows were slaughter from each group to study carcass characteristics and pork quality parameters. The results revealed that major carcass traits i.e. fasting body weight, carcass weight with and without head and major cut up parts i.e. Boston butt, picnic shoulder, ham, loin, belly and jowl did not differ significantly between To and Tc group. However, the back fat thickness, loin eye area, lean meat yields in To group was significantly (p<0.05) higher than Tc group but no difference was observed in pork pH and nutrient composition. So, it was concluded that IS (3916-1966) recommended open area for pig housing did not improve quantitative and qualitative pork production, hence may be removed to increase resource use efficiency of pork production.