Breed and crossbreeding effects on weight, yield and quality of heavy italian dry-cured hams

Abstract

The aim of this study was to estimate direct heterosis and breed additive effects of Belgian Landrace (BL), Duroc (DU) and Spotted Poland (SP) in comparison with Italian Large White (LW) on weight, losses and percentage yields during processing, and qualitative traits of heavy dry-cured hams. Hams from 290 pigs of 16 genetic types, produced by LW, BL × LW, DU × LW and SP × LW gilts mated with LW, BL, DU and SP boars, were controlled during industrial processing; a sub-sample of 116 dry-cured hams were deboned and chemical composition, colour and organoleptic properties were assessed. Technological processing traits were slightly influenced by additive effects and the imported breeds gave yields of dry-cured hams comparable to those of LW. BL crossbred pigs reduced the incidence of bone on the weight of seasoned ham (P < 0.01), but tended to have a higher percentage of ham discarded during processing than LW and a lower ham flavour score (P < 0.05). These findings suggest a lesser dry-curing suitability of BL-derived hams, even though no pigs gave PSE meat. DU decreased the incidence of bone (P < 0.05), protein content (P < 0.05) and flavour score (P < 0.10) and increased dry matter and sodium chloride (P < 0.05) of dry-cured hams with respect to LW. SP gave lighter boned hams than LW (P < 0.01), but with higher trimming discards (P < 0.05), and did not exert any influence on quality traits of seasoned hams. Direct heterosis never affected weight, losses and quality traits of seasoned hams, suggesting a negligible effect of crossbreeding on processing traits of pork meat.