title: How many muscle samples are required to obtain reliable estimations of muscle fibre characteristics from pig longissimus muscle?
abstract: In order to investigate the reliability of muscle fibre trait estimations of pig longissimus muscle and to derive the minimum number of samples required per muscle cross-section and animal, intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC, ϑˆ) were obtained by one-way analysis of variance. From each of 23 market weight pigs five samples, evenly distributed over the muscle cross-sectional area at the 12th/13th rib level, were taken and analyzed for various muscle fibre traits. The number of samples required per muscle cross-section was found to be different between selected fibre traits, ranging from a minimum of three (for number of muscle fibres) to a maximum of five or more (for mean fibre area, fibre type composition and relative area occupied by each fibre type). These findings should be taken as a recommendation, but their usefulness will depend upon the goal and conditions of future experiments.
authors: Animal Nutrition, Management and Welfare Research Group, Animal and Feed Science Department, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 08193 Bellaterra, Spain.
authors: A
authors: A
authors: Cerisuelo
authors: R
authors: R
authors: Sala
authors: G
authors: G
authors: Nürnberg
authors: M
authors: M
authors: Baucells
authors: C
authors: C
authors: Rehfeldt