Influence of age on the carcass characteristics of three way synthetic pigs raised under swill feed regime

The objective of this study was to evaluate effect of age on the carcass characteristics of three way synthetic pig breed (25% Large White Yorkshire x 25% Landrace x 50% Duroc) raised under swill feed regime. A total of 65 crossbred pigs, with different age group were selected randomly and they were divided into four different age groups, viz., group I (7 months), group II (8 months), group III (9 months) and group IV (>12 months), hygienically slaughtered and manually dissected. The parameters studied includes live weight, hot carcass weight, dressed weight, carcass length, loin eye area, back fat thickness, edible offal, inedible offal, cut up parts and meat cum bone ratio. Among the four different age group examined, group III was significantly (P<0.01) different from other group with respect to all the parameters studied.