Research Programs Overview
Sheep And Their Management
Wool Quality
»
Meat Quality
Range Of New Meat Phenotypes
Biology And Production Pathways
Lean Meat Yield And Supply Chains
Meat Processing Technologies
Information Nucleus
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NEXT GENERATION MEAT QUALITY


Program Leader


Professor Dave Pethick
Tel:  08 9360 2246
Email – d.pethick@murdoch.edu.au

Latest Updates

Biology and production pathways for desired phenotypes
SNP discovery for the Calpain/Calpastatin loci to predict tenderness and Omega 3 biosynthesis loci for human health attributes have continued. The next phase of this research beginning in February will be to identify the SNP within the extreme sires across the INF breeds and screen a panel of the SNP across 700-1000 INF lambs with available DNA.   

To provide additional information about the influence of selection for meat phenotypes on consumer perceptions of meat eating quality, 1000 lambs from the 09/10 INF will be sampled for consumer eating quality assessment on the loin and eye round muscles.  This will provide subjective data to develop eating quality prediction models to feed through MSA.  
 
Supply chains
Bruce Hancock from Rural Solutions SA has been appointed to the new Supply Chain Coordinator position. This will begin an intesive period of negotiating with commercial supply chain partners for improvement of lean meat yield and other areas of development along their supply chains.
 
CT scanning will continue to be used to underpin lean meat yield predictions.
  
Application of meat processing technologies
A study has shown that the Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) MOLE technology could detect changes in meat quality measures due to ageing.   Experimentation to establish whether the MOLE can directly measure, or predict from an early measurement, important meat quality parameters (e.g. shear force, pH, water holding capacity) under processing plant conditions is required as is development of protocols for use.
 
The potential for Raman spectroscopy to be used for measuring meat quality is being tested. Planning is underway for testing of a German produced hand held Raman instrument to be compared with a bench top version when CRC samples are tested in Ireland. Testing of matching shear force samples has commenced at the Cowra lab.
 
The project to improve the performance of the electrical stimulation units in INF lamb processing abattoirs, used for reducing cold shortening and improving meat tenderness, is now at the validation stage. In one plant, revised stimulation settings under experimental conditions lifted the number of carcases in the pH/temp window up to an average of 85%. Validation of the changes will occur as 2009 drop IN lambs are slaughtered over the next 3-4 months.

This work will increase the meat yield of sheep and raise consumer demand by building on the key virtues of eating quality and human nutritional value of lamb.


Benefits to industry

This program is expected to increase industry profitability by $523 million over the next 25 years by improving lean meat yield and quality through: 
  • Increasing processing efficiency
  • Enhancing eating quality by improved measurement of meat quality
  • Securing and improving the nutritional claims of lamb as an excellent source of iron, zinc and omega-3 fatty acids
  • Improving yield while maintaining quality
  • Increasing the market value and productivity of lamb through integrated production and genetics
  • Increasing the value of lamb to producers, processors and consumers

Key areas of work

Through a combination of traditional selection techniques and cutting-edge genomic selection technologies, this program will deliver:
  • New meat quality traits for yield, human health and eating quality which will be used to develop new sheep breeding values
  • The production pathways through the supply chain to deliver new traits right through to the consumer
  • A commercial test to differentiate odour levels associated with aged sheepmeat
  • A system to electronically track carcases and cuts through the abattoir
  • New methods to measure lean meat yield and techniques for improving quality within the abattoir
The Information Nucleus flock will breed 18,000 Merino, first-cross and second-cross lambs over five years from eight research sites. These animals will provide a large data set with over 12,500 pieces of meat quality data to be collected during processing.
 



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