Presenter Information

Denton Perkins
Joshua Dallin

Class

Article

College

College of Agriculture and Applied Sciences

Department

Animal, Dairy, and Veterinary Sciences Department

Presentation Type

Poster Presentation

Abstract

Junior livestock projects provide excellent opportunities for education and positive agricultural experiences for 4-H youth. As genetic testing advances become widely available to livestock producers, youth benefit by learning the benefits and applications of genetic testing. Porcine stress syndrome (PSS), which springs from the HAL gene, is an inherited neuromuscular disorder in pigs that is triggered by stressful situations, such as exercise, fighting, marketing, vaccination, castration, parturition, hot weather, etc. The symptoms exhibited by pigs experiencing PSS include muscle and tail tremors, labored and irregular breathing, blanching and reddening of the skin, rapid rise in body temperature, collapse, muscle rigidity and eventual death. (Stradler & Conaster, n.d.) In addition, Rendement Napole (RN) is a gene is found to cause low ultimate pH and water holding capacity (WHC) in pork. Low water holding capacity results in poor quality meat, referred to as Pale Soft Exudative (PSE) grade meat, which causes dry meat with low palatability when cooked. Unlike the porcine stress syndrome (PSS), the RN- gene appears completely dominant. This dominance implies that a copy of the RN- gene inherited from even just one parent can cause poor meat quality. The negative effects of the RN gene on pork quality result in economic losses in the pork industry (Du, 2004). In 2016, over 1,000 4-H youth participated in Market Hog projects throughout Utah (Dallin, 2017). This presentation will review our 2016 findings from 150 sampled market hogs that were tested from eleven counties in the State. Through scheduled presentations, we will be able to use our findings to educate 4-H youth, market hog producers, and USU Extension Faculty on the importance of selecting animals that do not have these genetic flaws and are therefore more likely to produce higher quality meat.

Location

Logan, Utah

Event Website

http://digitalcommons.usu.edu/researchweek/ResearchWeek2017/

Start Date

4-13-2017 9:00 AM

End Date

4-13-2017 10:15 AM

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Apr 13th, 9:00 AM Apr 13th, 10:15 AM

Integrating a Traditional 4-H Youth Program with STEM Programming using Market Show Hog DNA to Evaluate Meat Quality

Logan, Utah

Junior livestock projects provide excellent opportunities for education and positive agricultural experiences for 4-H youth. As genetic testing advances become widely available to livestock producers, youth benefit by learning the benefits and applications of genetic testing. Porcine stress syndrome (PSS), which springs from the HAL gene, is an inherited neuromuscular disorder in pigs that is triggered by stressful situations, such as exercise, fighting, marketing, vaccination, castration, parturition, hot weather, etc. The symptoms exhibited by pigs experiencing PSS include muscle and tail tremors, labored and irregular breathing, blanching and reddening of the skin, rapid rise in body temperature, collapse, muscle rigidity and eventual death. (Stradler & Conaster, n.d.) In addition, Rendement Napole (RN) is a gene is found to cause low ultimate pH and water holding capacity (WHC) in pork. Low water holding capacity results in poor quality meat, referred to as Pale Soft Exudative (PSE) grade meat, which causes dry meat with low palatability when cooked. Unlike the porcine stress syndrome (PSS), the RN- gene appears completely dominant. This dominance implies that a copy of the RN- gene inherited from even just one parent can cause poor meat quality. The negative effects of the RN gene on pork quality result in economic losses in the pork industry (Du, 2004). In 2016, over 1,000 4-H youth participated in Market Hog projects throughout Utah (Dallin, 2017). This presentation will review our 2016 findings from 150 sampled market hogs that were tested from eleven counties in the State. Through scheduled presentations, we will be able to use our findings to educate 4-H youth, market hog producers, and USU Extension Faculty on the importance of selecting animals that do not have these genetic flaws and are therefore more likely to produce higher quality meat.

https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/researchweek/ResearchWeek2017/All2017/1