Effects of Conjugated Linoleic Acid Supplementation and Pig Genotype on Carcass and Meat Quality Attributes

A study was conducted to examine the efficacy of feeding conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) to differing stress-genotype pigs in an effort to improve carcass and meat quality characteristics in finishing swine. Feeding CLA at 0.75% of the diet resulted in decreased (P\u3c.05) 10th and last rib fat depth, regardless of stressgenotype. No differences were observed for percent cooler shrink, loin muscle area, or subjective color score of the loineye. However, subjective marbling (P\u3c.03) and firmness (P\u3c.06) scores of the loineye were increased with CLA supplementation. Increases in marbling were verified with proximate analysis where percent lipid was increased (P\u3c.05) significantly with CLA supplementation