Studies on intravitally-determined interrelationships between the activity of asparagine and alanine aminotransferases in blood serum and the fattering growth and meat yield of pigs.

As part of studies on early intravital indices of fattening growth and meat yield, an attempt was made to determine the interrelationship between the activity level of asparagine and alanine aminotransferases during early growth (4 months) and meat yield, (determined on six months) old animals, and the fattening growth of pigs.The material for this investigation was comprised of 91 pigs of the Polish Landrace breed and 66 pigs of the Large-White Polish breed from the state breeding farm at Lubiana. The conclusions of the research are as follows: 1. A significant positive correlation was found between the activity of AspAT and average 'live' growth rate (r=0.276), and a highly significant positive correlation was found between the activity of this enzyme and a performance testing selection index (r=0.354) in the case of the Large-White Polish breed. 2. A highly positive correlation coefficient between the activity of alanine aminotransferases and the mean 'live' rate of growth (r=0.347) was found in the Polish Landrace breed. 3. It is suggested that the AspAT level in the Large-White Polish breed and the ALAT level in the Polish Landrace breed may be used as a criterion of selection at early stages of growth (4 months) to predict meat and fattening output.