Early postnatal plasma concentrations of testicular steroid hormones, pubertal development, and carcass leanness as potential indicators of boar taint in market weight intact male pigs.

Abstract

Testicular steroid hormone concentrations in plasma of early postnatal male pigs were compared with plasma steroid hormone concentrations and androstenone concentrations in the fat of pigs at market weight. Positive correlations were found between the concentrations of fat androstenone at market weight and the concentrations of plasma androstenone (r = 0.46; P < 0.01), estrone sulfate (r = 0.42; P < 0.01), and testosterone (r = 0.26; P < 0.05) at market weight. These correlations were not found in animals that had reached an advanced state of pubertal development as judged by high estrone sulfate concentrations in plasma. Significant correlations were observed between plasma testosterone concentrations at market weight and plasma concentrations of androstenone (r = 0.57; P < 0.05), and estrone sulfate (r = 0.49; P < 0.05) in early postnatal animals. However, concentrations of androstenone in the fat of market weight animals were not correlated with plasma concentrations of estrone sulfate, androstenone, or testosterone in early postnatal animals. Plasma concentrations of steroid hormones in early postnatal animals cannot, therefore, be used to predict the potential for boar taint in the same animals at market weight. In market weight animals, there was a negative correlation (r = -0.57; P < 0.01) between backfat thickness and concentrations of androstenone in fat. Animals were subsequently sorted according to backfat thickness into lean and fat groups of animals. There was a strong, negative correlation between back-fat thickness and androstenone concentrations in fat (r = -0.80; P < 0.01), as well as a positive correlation between plasma androstenone and concentrations of androstenone in fat (r = 0.42; P < 0.05) among the lean group of animals. This was not seen in the fat group of animals. This suggests that the accumulation of androstenone from plasma into fat may be affected by the leanness of the pig.