Ultrassonography evaluation of buffaloes carcass quality of Murrah breed fed with different levels of spineless cactus as a replacement of the wheat bran

The real-time ultrasonography is one of the most widely used techniques for in vivo prediction of carcass or body composition in animals. It is a non-invasive technique which quantifies different tissues in live animals. The objective this study was to evaluate the correlation between traits obtained real time ultrasound and those obtained in the carcass. Twenty no castrated buffaloes Murrah with initial body weight of 300 [+ or -] 20kg were used. The animals were fed with different levels of spineless cactus (0, 33, 66, and 100 %) as a replacement of the wheat bran in sugarcane based diets. The measures obtained by ultrasound in real time were determined using by Aquila PieMedical[R] ultrasound machine, equipped with 3.5-MHz linear transducer, twenty-four hours before slaughter animals. The measurements taken were longissimus muscle area located between the 12th and 13th ribs (LMA) and subcutaneous fat thickness (SFT). The animals were slaughtered after 84 days of feedlot. The SFT from the carcass was evaluated using a paquimeter and the LMA was evaluated by using a quadrant grade ruler. The experimental design was the completely randomized. It was observed a linear decrease effect on the LMA obtained by ultrasom and carcass. The coefficients of determination for LMA obtained by ultrasom and in the carcass were high and similar, proving that 96% and 98% of the total variation is explained by the replacement levels. The treatments had no effect (P>0.05) on SFT obtained by ultrasom and in the carcass. The correlation between LMA obtained by ultrasom and in the carcass (r = 0.96) was positive and highly significant (P