The development of imitation crab sticks by substituting spent laying hen meat for Alaska pollack.

Imitation crab stick (ICS) samples were divided into 5 treatments, a control composed of commercial ICS containing no breast meat from spent laying hens, and treatments 1, 2, 3, and 4, in which 5, 10, 15, and 20% batter from breast meat of whole spent laying hens was substituted for Alaska pollack surimi, respectively. Imitation crab stick samples containing spent laying hen breast meat batter showed significantly (P < 0.05) higher moisture levels than the control sample. However, the myoglobin and metmyoglobin levels did not differ significantly (P > 0.05) among ICS samples. During storage, whiteness was greater in the control sample than in the ICS samples containing spent laying hen breast meat batter. The saturated and monounsaturated fatty acids increased, whereas the polyunsaturated fatty acids decreased in response to substituting surimi with spent laying hen breast meat batter. The moisture content and pH were increased as the amount of spent laying hen breast meat batter increased. The lipid oxidation value (TBA-reactive substances) and protein degradation value (volatile basic nitrogen) tended to increase during storage as the amount of spent laying hen breast meat batter increased. None of the sensory evaluation items differed among ICS samples during storage, although the color of the final products, mechanical color (by colorimeter), and textural properties did differ among samples. These results indicate that substituting laying hen breast meat batter for Alaska pollack surimi is a very useful method for the production of ICS because it enables the use of a simple production process that does not require steps, such as washing or pH adjustment, for myofibrillar protein recovery.

Tunic morphology and viral surveillance in diseased Korean ascidians: Soft tunic syndrome in the edible ascidian, Halocynthia roretzi (Drasche), in aquaculture.

'Soft tunic syndrome' causes mass mortality in the edible ascidian Halocynthia roretzi in Korean and Japanese aquaculture. In histopathological comparison, there were no specific differences between diseased specimens from Korea and Japan, indicating that soft tunic syndrome occurring in Korea and Japan is the same disease. No bacterial or protozoan cells were microscopically detected in either healthy or diseased tunics suggesting they are not the direct causes of soft tunic syndrome. Attempts were made to isolate virus from affected ascidians taking into account temperature conditions in which soft tunic syndrome is most prevalent in the field. However, no viruses were isolated from diseased or non-diseased specimens using chinook salmon embryo (CHSE-214), flounder fin (FFN) or epithelioma papillosum cyprini (EPC) cell lines.

Associations of the variation in the porcine myogenin gene with muscle fibre characteristics, lean meat production and meat quality traits.

Pig breeding is aimed at improving lean meat production ability as well as meat quality, and muscle fibre characteristics may be important for enhancing these traits. Therefore, new molecular markers have been demanded for selecting lean meat production ability and meat quality in live animals. Myogenin belongs to the MyoD gene family, and is a candidate gene responsible for muscle fibre characteristics. We identified a new single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) site in the 5' upstream region of the myogenin gene (nucleotides C and T). A total of 252 pigs of three breeds were genotyped by polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism using BspCNI. Additionally, they were genotyped for the previously detected MspI site in the 3'-flanking region (alleles A and B). The CCBB diplotype had the highest frequency over breeds, followed by TCBB and CCAB. The other diplotypes were not found in studied pigs. Association analysis performed for the markers found that the TCBB diplotype has desirable effects on the total number of fibres (p < 0.002), fibre cross-sectional area (p < 0.06), and loin eye area (p < 0.001) than the other diplotypes. Moreover, the diplotype had the highest muscle pH value (p < 0.07) and all meat quality traits were near the upper limit of the normal range as a reddish pink, firm and non-exudative (RFN) pork. Therefore, we suggest that selection for the myogenin diplotypes could improve total muscle fibre number, size and lean meat production ability with good meat quality.