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Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate differences in the histological profile of the longissimus dorsi muscle of different swine breeds – Large White (LW), Ukrainian meat (UM), Duroc (D) and Landrace (L).
A total of 100 purebred (LW×LW, UM×UM, D×D and LN×LN ) and crossbred pigs (LW×D, D×LW, LN×D, D×LN, LN×LW and LW×LN) were evaluated. Muscle fiber diameter and percentages of the muscle tissue and intramuscular fat content were investigated.
We model pig’s meat structure as a fractal, and assume the projected image of the histological profile can be described by a fractal dimension (FD) estimates. Fractal dimension, FD, measured by the box-counting method was used to quantize the histological outlines of the muscle tissue images. Fractal dimensions estimates were determined using special software Fractalyse – Fractal Analysis Software v. 2.4.1.
The average muscle fiber diameter in pigs ranged from 16 (D × LN) to 43 µ (LN × LW). The fractal dimension (FD) values range from 1.808 to 1.886 (R² = 0.9938-0.9998). All feature parameters of the histological profile significantly correlated with fractal dimension.  A good correlation (r = 0.735; p = 0.015) was obtained between the mean fat content measured by histological analysis and a fractal dimension (FD) estimates in different pig genetic groups. All genetic groups of pigs can be attributed to three clusters characterized by different muscle tissue properties, based on the obtained the fractal dimensionestimates.
Fractal dimension estimates may be used for the pattern of the muscle fibers and intramuscular fat distribution estimated based on the histological profile images.

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