Abstract
A total of 144 pigs were used to study the effects of sex (barrows or gilts) and terminal sire line (Iberian or three genetic lines of Duroc: Duroc 1, Duroc 2 and Duroc 3) on performance and carcass and meat quality traits. Gilts showed slightly lower average daily gain, shoulder weight and trimming losses, but slightly better primal cuts yields and higher loin weight, while there was no significant effect of sex on meat quality traits or on the fatty acid composition of lard and muscle. There were important differences in performance and in carcass and primal cuts quality traits between pure Iberian pigs and all Iberian × Duroc crossbreeds evaluated, partly due to the lower slaughter weights reached by the formers. The different sire lines showed differences in several traits; Duroc 1 group showed lower backfat thickness and ham and shoulder trimming losses, and higher primal cut yields than Duroc 2 and Duroc 3 groups. Intramuscular fat (IMF) content remained unaffected by crossbreeding, but meat color resulted more intense and redder in crosses from the Duroc 1 sire line. The accumulation of fatty acids in lard was not affected by Duroc sire line, while animals of the group Duroc 2 showed higher levels of monounsaturated fatty acid and lower of polyunsaturated ones in IMF. These results highlight the importance of considering not only performance, but also carcass and meat quality traits when deciding the Duroc sire line for crossbreeding in Iberian pig production.
Highlights
We studied the influence of gender and crossbreeding (pure Iberian —Iberian— or Iberian & from the same genetic line crossbreed with three different lines of Duroc ( —Duroc 1, Duroc 2, Duroc 3—) on carcass and meat quality traits of fattened pigs slaughtered, using a total of 144 pigs (n = 18 for each group), coming from 16 different litters
Crossbreeding affected significantly both LW and average daily gain (ADG), while gender led to differences in ADG in the last phases of fattening, and the combined effect crossbreeding × gender did not influence these parameters
Slaughter weight (SW) was much lower for pure Iberian pigs (134.6 kg), even though these animals were kept until an older slaughter age in order to reach commercial slaughter weights
Summary
In order to increase yields and to reduce the high cost of this productive system, crossbreeding and indoor rearing have been adopted as common productive strategies in recent years (Isabel et al, 2003). Such modifications of the traditional productive system of pigs have led to a decrease in the sensory quality of dry-cured products (Muriel et al, 2004; Ventanas et al, 2007a). Iberian meat and meat products quality is based, among others factors, in the presence of high levels of intramuscular fat (IMF), the great concentrations of heme pigments and the high levels of monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFA) (Ruiz et al, 2002).
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