[Enzyme metabolic and contractile activities of 30 pig muscles. Relation with the final ph attained after death].

This paper presents a study of the metabolic and contractile types of 34 samples from 30 muscles in five crossbred Pietrain-Large White pigs 6 to 7 months old. The activity of the following enzymes was measured: glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH), lactate dehydrogenase using high (LDH-h) or low (LDH-b) pyruvate concentrations in the reaction medium, citrate synthase (CS), and myofibrillar Ca-Mg activated ATPase. Haeminic iron and ultimate pH (pHu) were measured on the same samples. The results showed a negative, rather linear relationship between GAPDH, LDH and ATPase activities on the one hand and CS and haeminic iron on the other. Rather high correlations (r = 0.7 to 0.8) were observed between metabolic and contractile criteria and pHu; the red (slow) muscles had the highest pHu.