The PIGWEB Project’s large-scale trial was an important step in the development of a noninvasive method for measuring the body composition of pigs.
During the last two weeks of September, researchers from the Institute of Agrifood Research and Technology (IRTA), the French National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and Environment (INRAe), the Research Institute for Farm Animal Biology (FBN) and Agroscope worked together on Agroscope’s Posieux site on a large-scale trial conducted as part of the PIGWEB Project.
Different methods for evaluating the body composition of pigs were investigated. Four non-invasive methods were used: computer tomography (CT), dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA), near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) and nuclear magnetic resonance imaging (NMRI). The results of these measurements will be compared with the reference method (gold standard) of the chemical analysis of the empty body and carcass. The results will be used to compare the different methods and refine the existing estimating equations for the noninvasive measurement of the body composition of pigs.
Agroscope’s ‘Pig’ Research Group is one of the 16 research groups of the PIGWEB consortium, which is supported by the EU Research Programme Horizon 2020.
Thanks to the good organisation and close cooperation of the participants, the work went smoothly.
