INVESTIGATION OF THE POSSIBILITY OF EARLY DETERMINATION OF THE FATTENING CAPACITY AND SLAUGHTERING QUALITIES OF PIGS BY APPLYING BIOCHEMICAL TESTS
Drawing upon information from literature and relying on some knowledge we possess, in our work we attempted to establish whether growth intensity in pigs, their fattening capacity and slaughtering qualities could be associated with some biochemical qualities of their blood, such as: alkaline phosphatase activity (AP), levels of protein-bound iodine (PBI) and tyrosine, levels of insulin and glychemic and insulin reaction to oral loading with glucose, as well as histomorphological characteristics of thyroid and endocrine pancreas. The tests were performed on Swedish Landrace pigs (n=21) of both sexes, which were divided into two groups on the basis of insulin level in their morning blood sample: group A (n=9) with lower, and group B (n=12) with higher level of insulin. When fattening was finished the animals were slaughtered and then slaughtering qualities and histomorphological characteristics of thyroid and endocrine pancreas determined. The performed investigation showed that some differences in the studied characteristics exist between the groups of pigs of the same breed. However, the obtained results are not of such weight that would allow drawing conclusions of sound and reliable character pertaining to the possible association of chemical qualities of blood with fattening and slaughtering qualities.