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.

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