The lumbar joint, which is handled to assess body condition scores, was taken from 52 adult Rasa Aragonesa ewes with body condition scores between 1·5 and 4·5 and dissected into muscle, bone, subcutaneous and intermuscular fat. The subcutaneous fat in the lumbar joint was highly correlated with total fat in the body (r=0·97), confirming the value of this region for assessing body condition in Rasa Aragonesa ewes

Colomer-Rocher, F.

Delfa, R.

Teixeira, Alfredo

Animal Production

Delfa, Rafael

Biblioteca Digital do IPB

Anim. Prod. 1989, 49: 327-329 © 1989 British Sociely of Animal Production IN Kl:\-.156 I /X'i/H26XII327$02·1Ml A NOTE ON THE USE OF A LUMBAR JOINT AS A PREDICTOR OF BODY FAT DEPOTS IN ARAGONESA EWES WITH DIFFERENT BODY CONDITION SCORES R. DELFA, A. T EI XEI RA t AND F. COLOMER-ROCIIER Department of A nimal Production, Servicio de Jnvestigaci6n Agraria de la Diputaci6n General de Arag6n. Aparwdo 727 Zaragoza, Spain The lumbar joint, which is handled to assess body condition scores, was taken from 52 adult Rasa A ragonesa ewes with body condition scores between 1 ·5 and 4·5 and dissected into muscle, bone, subcutaneous and intermuscular fat . The subcutaneous fat in the lumbar joint was highly correlated with total fat in the body (r=0·97) , confirming the value of this region for assessing body condition in Rasa Aragonesa ewes. J EFFERI ES (1961) described a system of scoring the body condit ion of sheep in which each of six grades is de fined in te rms of palpable characteristics in the lum bar region . T his author proposed the lum bar reg1on for assessing body condition because the loin IS the latest part of the growing animal to develop . It is the last to ~u_t on fat and the first to lose it. Body cond1t1o n of sheep can be assessed by fee ling the spinal column, in particular the lumbar_ processes . The. aim of this study was to clefme the compos1t10n of a joint taken from the lumbar ~egion (lumbar jo int) as a predictor of the van ous fat depots of Aragonesa ewes. . The study involved t h~ _ 52 d1ssected arcasses as descri bed by Te1xe1ra, Delfa and ~olomer-Rocher (1989) . A jo_int (Figure ~ ) taken fro m the lu mbar regiOn, __ which IS alpated to assess body cond1t1on score rBCS), was dissected into muscle, bone. subcutaneous a nd intermuscular fat . The JOint t Present address: lnstituto Politecn ico de Braganca. A partado 38, Braganca. Port ugal. 327 was cut between 3rd a nd 4th and 6th a nd 7 th lumbar vertebrae with the ventral cut being at a distance from the media l li ne equa l to the length of the cut . T he fat thickness (measurement C). and the width and depth of m. longissimus dorsi (measurements A a nd B, respective ly) were measured on the cut between 3rd and 4th lum bar vertebrae . Co rrelation and regression ana lyses between subcutaneo us fa t and subcutaneous plus intermuscul ar fa t in the lumbar jo int (LSF and TLF respecti vely) a nd individua l fat depots of the ewes , were calculated in order to assess the value of the lumbar joint as a predictor of the total body fat and various fat depots : omental, mesenteric, subcuta neous, intermuscular and kidney a nd pelvic fa t. No significa nt diffe re nces ( P < 0·05) were foun d between body conditio n classes (T able 1) for m. longissimus dorsi le ngth , suggesting the lumbar joi nt is we ll defined anatomically. Th ere were significant diffe rences m the measure ments B and C between ewes in the different condit ion scores (P < 0·0 1). T he ewes in poor body cond ition had less subcutaneous and intermuscular fat in the lumbar joint (Table 1) than the ewes with good body condition. T he re was some variation in the bone weight between body condi tion classes , which probably results from the difficulty of splitt ing the carcass down the cent re of the vertebral column . Corre lation coefficients between the weights of individua l fat depots in the whole carcass and LSF or TLF are given in Tahle 2. A ll 328 DELFA , TEIXEIRA AND COLOMER-ROCHER (M. multifidtL5 lumborwn) -~ (M . longissimus dom) C ranea l section (M. psoas major) (M. psoas minor) (M. quadratus lumborum) (M . ob/iquus internus abdominis) (M. cutaneus tmnci) F 1G. I. D iagram showing definitio n of the lum bar joint. TAB LE l Measurements and composition of lumbar joint in ewes of different body condition score (BCS) Length We ight Muscle Subcutaneous Inte rmuscular (mm) A·i· (mm ) Bt (mm) Ci" (mm) (g) (g) Bone (g) fa t (g) fat (g) ~~~ ~ ~BCS group Mea n s. d. Mean s. cl. Mean s.d. Mean s.d. Mean s.d . Mean s.d. Mean s .d . Mean s.d . Mean s.d. 1·5 to 1·75 11 2" 0 oOAB 12 lW' 5 0·3" 0·5 220" 52-4 J64A 40·!\ 42Ail 12·5 3" 2·3 7" 4· 1 (no . =l\) 2·0 to 2·25 lOo" 8 S3H 0 J7A ' ·' 1·7·' 2 ·3 226" 39·3 166" 35·5 3613 5·0 7" 4·7 14" 4·0 (no.=X) 2·5 to 2·75 112" 4 oo" 7 231l 2 3·8" 2 ·5 342" 38·7 2 JlB 27·9 54'" 19·7 43" 14·2 29A'· 8·6 (no .=l\) 3·0 to 3 ·25 110" 3 68'' 5 3Uc 3 3 ·tl" 1·5 3o7" 56·1\ 23oBC 30·9 soN· 12 ·9 44" 17·3 25Ac l l ·l\ (no. = X) 3·5 to 3 ·75 114'' 6 69'' 9 3(/ 5 7·3' 2·5 459Ac 1\2·9 255CD 48·2 59"'-" 26·5 100'" 45-4 401l'" 13 ·9 (no.=8) 4·0 to 4·50 112'' 5 66'' 0 3 1(" 3 14-4" 5· 1 575 13' 103·1 287" 40·6 49AC 19·5 18o'' 54·1 50" 19 ·0 (no. = l2) a.b.c Means wi th diffe rent superscripts diffe r signifi cantly at p < 0·05 ( lower case) and at p < 0·01 (upper case) . t A = width o f muscle m . longissimus dorsi; B = depth of muscle m . longissimus dorsi; c = fat thickness above B. I LUMBAR JO INT AS PREDICTOR OF BODY FAT 329 TABLE 3 Regression relationships for fat depot weights on total fat weight 111 the lumbar joint (g) and for subcutaneous fat weight in the carcass on subcutaneous fat weight in the lumbar joint (g) Equat ion Dependent variable I O mental fat (g) 2 Mesenteric fa t (g) 3 Kidney and pelvic fat (g) 4 Total body fat {g) 5 Interm uscular fat (g) 6 Subcutaneous fat (g) TABLE 2 Correlation coefficients between body condition score, total body fat , individual fat depots of the ewes and subcutaneous or subcutaneous plus intermuscular fat in lumbar joint Subcutaneous fat Total fat Body conditio n sco re 0·93 O·<J31" Omental fat O·H<J 0·94' Mesente ric fat 0·1!6 0·911t Kidney and pelvic fat (J.t)J O·<J2t Su bcu taneous fat 0·'.17 O· <J5 In te rmuscula r fat 0·95 11·%7 T ota l body fa t O·tJ7 11·97 t Computed after log,.. ~ransformation . coefficients were hig hl y significan t ( p < 0·001). Of th e va ri ation in weight of fat depots proportionately O·X2 to 0·94_ was accounted for by variation in to tal fa t tn the lumbar joint. Regressio ns between the fat depots in the carcass and ~ota l fat in ~he lumbar joint equations I to ) and regressron between subcutaneous fat in the carcass and subcutaneous fat in the lumbar joint equa~ ion 6 are given in Table 3. These equattons indicate that the to ta l fat in the lumhar JOII1t is a good predictor of a ll fat depots. The LSF is a better predtctor o f total subcuta neous fat tha n the to tal fat in this joint. . . T he m. longtsmnus thick ness (C) were body conditio n score . dorsi depth (B) and fat highly corre lated with This suggests tha t body Logari thmic 11 h , . .: . o f h ,. Residual s.c.J . 1·:1 (1 .1) 0·05 () . l).j 0 ·17 l·lU 11·57 1Hl4 O·IJO 0· 14 1· 11 0·% IHJ4 0·'10 0· 15 - 0·04 0·76 ().()J II·IJ7 O·OtJ 1·91 0·59 1Hl2 0·% 0· 15 Linear 42·7 14 ·7 0·54 11·97 293·7 cond ition assessme nt by palpation assesses the muscle depth and degree of suhcutaneous cover , agreeing wi th the stateme nts of Jeffe ries (196 1) and Ru;-;sel. Doney a nd Gu nn ( 196<.J). TLF was hi ghly correlated with both tota l a nd individua l fa t depots in the hody, confirming the va lue of this region for assessing body condition m the Aragonesa breed . A ( .K N( )Wt .E D< i t-:M F NTS This work has hccn suppo rted by D GA . I 1/\ <tnd 1/\MZ. The authors grat.:fu lly acknowlcc.Jg.: to Dr T imo thy Trca.:hc r from ln,t itutc o f (i ra"land a nd Animal Prod uction and to J>r Norman Ca,ey from Pn:toria Univ.:r,ity. for thei r helpful adYice durin~ the· progrc's of this work and for th.: rn ·i,ion of the manu,cript. R I ·. FI : RI ·N( .I ·S .l t ttt tut s. B. C'. I'H, I . l!odv condit itln ,corin.: and ib u'c in manage ment. "fi" "";niun Journal oj .·i grinliturr· 32: 1'!-2 1. R.t ·'" ' · /\ . J . F .. DoNt, , .l . M . and(;,·-..-... 1<. (i . 191'19. Subjective assessment of hody fat in live ,h.:cp. Journal of ;\ gricultum/ Scimce. Camhritlgt• 72: .J:'i 1·-15-1. Ttt" 11 ( ,\ . /\ . . D t tt ''· R . a nd Cot<>~llt<·Rotlltt<. F. IIJ~IJ . Rdat ion,hip, hct\\<"e'n fat depot' a nd hodv conditton 'core· o r t<til fatn.:" in Ra"t J\ragotl<.<l hrccd . !lnimul Production 49: 275-2XO. 

A note on the use of a lumbar joint as a predictor of body fat depots in Aragonesa ewes with different body confition scores

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A note on the use of a lumbar joint as a predictor of body fat depots in Aragonesa ewes with different body confition scores

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