Meat and fat quality in boars, castrates and gilts

Abstract

The aim of this work was to carry out a within-litter comparison of meat and fat quality in boars, castrates and gilts. The experimental material consisted of 334 pigs originating from 57 litters, each litter originally comprising 2 boars, 2 castrates and 2 gilts. Three breed combinations were more or less evenly represented: Y (YL), D (YL) and H (YL), where L = Landrace, Y = Large White, D = Duroc and H = Hampshire. It was found that there was essentially no difference in meat quality between the sexes with respect to pigment content and characteristics expressing PSE/DFD-status. Shear force values were, however, highest in boars. In addition, the protein content of the lean meat was lowest in boars and the water content highest, with intramuscular fat content intermediate. Gilts had the highest protein content and lowest percentage of intramuscular fat. Thus, although boars have a higher meat content in the carcass than castrates and gilts, the processing quality of the meat is slightly poorer. Fat quality was also highly dependent on sex. Boars had 5% less extractable fat, 1% more protein and 4% more water in back fat compared to castrates. The fat was also softer in boars than in the other sexes. Iodine values were thus highest in boars — mainly as a result of a higher linoleic acid content — and boars had the highest incidence (20%) of iodine values ⩾ 70, which is used as an indicator of soft fat in Danish work. Breed combination affected all the meat quality characteristics measured. PSE-frequency was highest in H (YL)-pigs, particularly in the ham, and pH 2-values were lowest in this breed combination. Y (YL)-pigs had the highest protein content and H (YL)-pigs the lowest. Intramuscular fat content was highest in D (YL). Fat quality was also affected by breed combination, but it was not possible to distinguish breed effects from herd effects in this work.