Evaluation of Predictive Ability of Two Artificial Neural Network Algorithms and Multiple Regression Model for Meat Quality Traits Affected by Pre-Slaughter Factors

Abstract

Recently, Artificial Neural Network (ANN) has been developed as an alternative to classical statistical methods in animal production. The methods can do classification or prediction by analyzing the information in the data set with the help of the neural network without requiring any preconditions (for example, distribution of data, non-linear data, highly correlated variables, etc.). In this context, we hypothesized that ANN, which is not only used in large and complex data sets but also estimates better in small data sets compared to classical statistical methods. The ability of ANN of Bayesian Regularization (BR-ANN) or Levenberg-Marquardt (LM-ANN) algorithms and Multiple Regression (MR) model to predict meat quality traits were assessed in a comparative study. The multilayer ANN algorithms obtained prediction data of meat quality measurements from pre-slaughter information using 1, 2, 4, 6 and 8 neurons in the hidden layer applied 10 times for each model. The performance of the methods was assessed according to the coefficient of determination (R-2) criteria, root mean squared error (RMSE) and residual prediction deviation (RPD). The comparison of the findings of BR-ANN and ML-ANN algorithms showed a similar ability to predict meat quality traits (error of prediction and R-2 values between 0.32-2.72 and 0.19-0.49, respectively). However, MR model predictions had lower performance than ANN algorithms, resulting in a wider error of prediction interval (0.4-3.44) and low R-2 (0.16-0.44). The RPD for meat quality traits was fair for BR-ANN and LM-ANN but was poor for MR. Based on our results, the ANN algorithms produced more reasonable prediction values than the MR model. ANN algorithms can be used as an acceptable alternative method for simple physical measurements of meat quality. ANN algorithms can be used reliably in small data sets.