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The weight of the thyroid and pituitary glands and its relationship with rate of gain in beef steers

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 March 2009

H. C. Luitingh
Affiliation:
Livestock and Meat Industries Control Board, Pretoria

Extract

The daily live-weight gain of beef steers was not correlated with the weight of the pituitary gland. In the case of the thyroid gland a significant correlation was found between the absolute weight of the gland and the rate of gain. No correlation, however, was found between the relative weight of the thyroid gland and the rate of gain of the steers.

A highly significant correlation was found between the weight of both the pituitary and thyroid glands and the live weight of the steers (r = 0·44 and r = 0·55 respectively), and the slope of the regression lines showed that the weight of the pituitary gland varied with the power of 0·34 of live weight (0·34% increase in the weight of the pituitary for every 1% increase in live weight) whilst the weight of the thyroid gland varied with the power of 0·89 of the live weight.

No correlation was found between the weight of the pituitary and thyroid glands. The average weight of the pituitary was 1·89, 2·11 and 2·19 g. and the average weight of the thyroid was 16·81, 20·24 and 22·65 g. for steers of 14, 26 and 38 months respectively. The average live weights of the steers in the age groups concerned were 791, 893 and 1071 lb. respectively.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1962

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