Researchers in Manitoba are attempting to harness the power of ultrasound to provide a live animal assessment of the amount of marbling in pork. Scientists with Swine Research and Development Corporation in Brandon have found marbling results in a distinct pattern in an ultrasound image.
Dr. Bob McKay says ultrasound can show whether or not there is marbling in the meat and now scientists want to quantify how much there is.
They do the ultrasound the carcass within 45 minutes of slaughter. After allowing the carcass to chill for 18 hours, they come the next day, split the carcass, cut the last four ribs of the loin so they’re probing right at the grade site. Next, he scans that half loin into the computer for evaluation, takes that half piece of loin off the four ribs and sends it away for chemical fat analysis. “We’re trying tie the live animal to the carcass scan to what we see visually and chemically,” said McKay. “If, for example, we’re probing for somebody producing breeding boars, it would be great if we could walk in, and say, all right this boar has a large amount of marbling or a medium amount of marbling or a small amount or no marbling so that we can have boars, depending on your needs, that can help out a herd.”
If a packing plant can sort carcasses instantaneously after the kill as to which one has marbling and which one has enough marbling to meet a specific market, it means that cutting becomes far more efficient. “You don’t have to cut a loin for example to check to see if there’s marbling because, once you cut a loin, it’s really no good for an export market,” he said. If this process works out, it will revolutionize the selection of breeding stock as well as the ability of packing plants to target specific product to specific markets, said McKay.