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Prairie Swine Centre is an affiliate of the University of Saskatchewan
Prairie Swine Centre is grateful for the assistance of the George Morris Centre in developing the economics portion of Pork Insight.
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Carcass and meat quality characteristics of immunocastrated male, surgically castrated male, entire male and female pigs
Posted in: Meat Quality by admin on July 30, 2010 | No Comments
The aim of the study was to evaluate the effect of immunocastration on meat and carcass quality compared with meat from females, entire and surgically castrated males. One hundred and eighteen (Landrace _ Duroc) _ Pietrain crossbred pigs were assigned to four experimental groups: entire males (EM), females (FE), surgically castrated males (CM) and vaccinated males (IM). Pigs were reared in two pens per sex and slaughtered at an average of 180 days of age. Carcass and meat quality characteristics such as testis size and length, fat depth, lean content, proportion of the carcass represented by each joint, pH, colour and intramuscular fat were evaluated. There was a significant reduction in the size of these sexual organs in IM compared with EM. CM and IM were fatter than FE and EM in the loin area but, in the ham area, CM was the fattest and EM the leanest, while IM and FE were in between. Intramuscular fat of IM (2.1%) was no different from the other sexes evaluated, although it was higher in CM (2.5%) with respect to FE (1.7%) and EM (1.8%). There was no difference between the IM and other treatment groups in meat quality. Regarding ours results we can conclude that from the point of view of meat and carcass quality the immunocastration could be a good alternative to the surgical castration.
For more information the full article can be found at http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/03091740
Carcass and meat quality characteristics and fatty acid composition of tissues from Pietrain-crossed barrows and gilts fed an elevated monounsaturated fat diet
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Fifty-one (Landrace*Large White)*Pietrain barrows and gilts were used to compare the effect of a diet rich in oleic acid (HO) by feeding a by-product of the olive industry (Greedy-Grass OLIVA_: 1.4% growing, 3.8% finishing) or a grain and soy diet (CONTROL) on carcass characteristics, meat quality and fatty acid profile of intramuscular and subcutaneous fat. Gilts had leaner (P < 0.05) carcasses with lower fat percentage in major primal cuts, and less (P < 0.05) saturated fat compared with barrows with no interaction (P > 0.05) between dietary treatment and gender. Source of dietary fat had no effect (P > 0.05) on primal cut yields, composition of major primal cuts, or carcass and meat quality characteristics. Intramuscular fat from HO fed pigs had higher (P < 0.05) percentage of saturated (SFA) and monounsaturated (MUFA) fatty acids, and lower (P < 0.05) polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) and n-6:n-3 ratio compared with CONTROL animals (37.4% vs. 36.8%, 44.7% vs. 40.1%, 17.9% vs. 23.2%, and 18.9 vs. 21.8 ratio, respectively). Subcutaneous fat from pigs fed HO had greater (P < 0.05) MUFA percentage, lower (P < 0.05) SFA and PUFA percentage, and lower (P < 0.05) n-6:n-3 ratio than pigs fed CONTROL diet (51.4% vs. 48.0%, 30.5% vs. 32.9%, 18.1% vs. 20.1%, and 9.83 vs. 11.3 ratio, respectively). Intramuscular fat had higher proportion of SFA and lower of MUFA showing a higher degree of tissue saturation compared with subcutaneous fat. Feeding Greedy-Grass increased MUFA and decreased PUFA proportions in fat depots reducing the risk of production of carcasses that are soft and oily which result in lower technological and processing quality
For more information the full article can be found at http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/03091740
Effect of rearing and slaughter conditions on behaviour, physiology and meat quality of Large White and Duroc-sired pigs
Posted in: Meat Quality by admin on January 1, 2009 | No Comments
This paper studies the interactive effects of genetic background and rearing environment on behaviour and stress
reactivity during rearing and at slaughter and the genetic background, rearing environment, slaughter conditions and
individual stress reactivity on technological meat quality traits. It was found that despite large effects of year of experimentation, outdoor rearing, genetic type and slaughter conditions influenced behaviour and muscle characteristics, particularly ante- and post-mortem glycogen content, sometimes influencing ultimate pH. Gender influenced various meat quality traits. Effects of rearing on muscle glycogen content and postmortem pH were stronger during the second year of rearing. Outdoor rearing increased muscle redness and water holding capacity was better in Duroc than Large White-sired pigs. Compared to indoor pigs, outdoor pigs showed a larger range and more active behaviour suggesting improved welfare from a behavioural point of view. Outdoor reared pigs were also less aggressive during pre-slaughter mixing, and less reactive to isolation and to novelty. Effect of slaughter conditions on glycogen content and ultimate pH depended on fighting levels during pre-slaughter mixing. Individual reactivity to social isolation had a predictive value for fighting behaviour during pre-slaughter mixing and post-mortem muscle characteristics.
For more information the full article can be found at http://www.journals.elsevierhealth.com/periodicals/livsci
The increase of slaughter weight in gilts as a strategy to optimize the production of Spanish high quality dry-cured ham
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This study was conducted to investigate the effect of increasing the slaughter weight of gilts with regard to that of the barrows on the production of high quality dry-cured hams from Spain (Teruel ham). It is concluded that increasing the slaughter weight of gilts by 4 kg with respect to that of barrows optimized the criteria used for the selection of carcasses destined for the production of Teruel ham.
For more information the full article can be found at http://jas.fass.org/
Dietary conjugated linoleic acid changes belly and bacon quality from pigs fed varied lipid sources
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The objective of this experiment was to determine the effects of dietary lipid source with or without the addition of CLA on bacon composition and quality. The results indicate that inclusion of dietary CLA will improve belly firmness, extend the shelf life stability of bacon, and increase the degree of fat saturation.
For more information the full article can be found at http://jas.fass.org/
Feeding conjugated linoleic acid partially recovers carcass quality in pigs fed dried corn distillers grains with solubles
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In this experiment the effects of CLA on growth and pork quality were evaluated in pigs fed DDGS. The data concludes that decreased carcass firmness with DDGS feeding is not reflected by changes in lipogenic gene expression. Feeding 20% or more DDGS to finishing swine decreases bacon leanness, but inclusion of 0.6% CLA in the finishing diet can partially reverse these effects.
For more information the full article can be found at http://jas.fass.org/
Validation of the QTL on SSC4 for meat and carcass quality traits in a commercial crossbred pig population
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The objective of this study was to validate several QTL on porcine chromosome 4 responsible for meat and carcass quality traits. Regression analysis resulted in the validation of three QTL within the interval: Minolta a* loin, back fat thickness and the weight of trimmed ham. The results were additionally confirmed by factor analysis. Candidate genes were proposed for meat colour, which was the most evident QTL validated in this study.
For more information the full article can be found at http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1111/(ISSN)1439-0388/issues
Associations of the variation in the porcine myogenin gene with muscle fibre characteristics, lean meat production and meat quality traits
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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.
For more information the full article can be found at http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1111/(ISSN)1439-0388/issues
Effect of castration on productive performance, carcass characteristics and meat quality of Iberian pig females reared under intensive management systems
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Traditionally, both males (4 days of age) and females (90 days of age) were castrated (Mayoral et al.,1999);males (CM) to avoid boar taint and females (CF) to reduce the negative effect of oestrous on growth. But, castration jeopardizes animal welfare (Directiva EEC, 2001), increases the risk of infection and impairs production cost. It has been reported that intact females (IF) might have lower meat quality (Ellis and McKeith, 1993) and in some instances, they might develop meat taint. Therefore, the objective of this research was to study the impact of using entire females on productive performance, carcass characteristics and meat quality of pigs under intensive management
systems. It was found that Intact females are leaner and more efficient and have higher proportion of shoulders than castrated females. Consequently, when animal welfare, cost of castration and carcass and meat quality traits are considered, intact females are a good alternative to castrated females for the production of dry-cured products from Iberian pigs. Therefore, under intensive management systems, intact females are preferred to castrated females.
For more information the full article can be found at http://www.journals.elsevierhealth.com/periodicals/livsci
Effects of monoclonal antibody on fat tissue development, carcass composition, growth performance and fat metabolism of pigs by subcutaneous injection
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It was hypothezied that that a monoclonal antibody (McAb) could display cytotoxicity only to the adipocytes from subcutaneous and abdominal adipose tissues and produce a suppressive effect to these fat cells and tissues, but would not produce side-effect to other tissues. In this study the effects of this McAb on the growth performance, carcass composition, fat metabolism and adipocyte tissue development was investigated to explore the possible mechanism of McAb to restrain the fat deposition and improve the carcass composition. The study did find that this McAb could improve the carcass composition by reducing fat percentage which was regulated by increasing fat mobilization and suppressing the fat deposition in adipose tissue.
For more information the full article can be found at http://www.journals.elsevierhealth.com/periodicals/livsci