Janauary 23, 2006

Biotronics' 'toolbox' predicts intramuscular fat in swine

Biotronics Inc. announced its BioSoft Toolbox for Swine system as the first of its kind to accurately predict the percentage of intramuscular fat in live swine. The system captures ultrasound images and interprets them.

The program allows live hogs to be scanned using real-time ultrasound to predict the amount of intramuscular fat in the loin eye muscle. Doyle Wilson, President of Biotronics has been working with Viren Amin, Chief Scientist of Biotronics on the program since last summer.

Intramuscular fat percentage is a very important meat quality trait, said Tom Baas, Iowa State University animal scientist. He added that the ability of pork producers to accurately predict intramuscular fat percentage will allow them to make important progress in the pork industry.