No abstract

The Nero Lucano (NL) pig is a black coat colored breed characterized by a remarkable ability to adapt to the difficult territory and climatic conditions of Basilicata region in Southern Italy. In the second half of the twentieth century, technological innovation, agricultural evolution, new breeding methods and the demand for increasingly lean meat brought the breed almost to extinction. Only in 2001, thanks to local institutions such as: the Basilicata Region, the University of Basilicata, the Regional Breeders Association and the Medio Basento mountain community, the NL pig returned to populate the area with the consequent possibility to appreciate again its specific cured meat products. We analyzed the pedigrees recorded by the breeders and the Illumina Porcine SNP60 BeadChip genotypes in order to obtain the genetic structure of the NL pig. Results evidenced that this population is characterized by long mean generation intervals (up to 3.5 yr), low effective population size (down to 7.2) and high mean inbreeding coefficients (FMOL = 0.53, FROH = 0.39). This picture highlights the low level of genetic variability and the critical issues to be faced for the complete recovery of this population.

The Nero Lucano pig is a native breed of Southern Italy which thanks to the joint action of Basilicata Region Institutions, University of Basilicata and breeders returned to populate the area of origin. In order to characterise and to monitor the variability present in the population, we genotyped 229 animals at 12 polymorphic loci located in the following genes: IGF2, LEP, MC4R, PIK3C3, RYR1 and VRTN. According to the results three loci (IGF2 209G>C, PIK3C3 2058A>G and RYR1 1843C>T) did not show variability, while the others showed genotype distributions in agreement with Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium and a minor allele frequency ranging from 0.022 for MC4R 892A to 0.479 for PIK3C3 2604T alleles. The IGF2, MC4R and VRTN loci were characterised by very low frequencies (from 0.02 to 0.05) of the alleles that are associated with favourable productive characteristics in cosmopolitan breeds. HIGHLIGHTS Analyses of the genetic variability of Nero Lucano pig population useful for meat production selection plans. The IGF2, MC4R and VRTN loci of Nero Lucano pig show very low frequencies of alleles associated with positive effects on meat production. The Nero Lucano pig can be considered as free from Malignant Hyperthermia, a positive result for the quality of cured meat products.

The aim of this study was to analyse the polymorphisms in the two promoter regions, P1 and P2, of the porcine Insulin-like Growth Factor 2 (IGF2) gene and to investigate the effect of IGF2 genotypes on meat quality traits in the Italian autochthonous Suino Nero Lucano pig. Three polymorphic sites were analysed and only two of the eight potential haplotypes were observed in the Suino Nero Lucano pig population: A haplotype (–366A – –225G – –182C), and B haplotype (–366G – –225C – –182T). Muscle mass and meat quality characteristics were analysed in 30 castrated pigs (10 for each of the three IGF2 genotypes: A/A, A/B, and B/B). According to the results, B/B animals, at the same carcass weight, showed the highest Longissimus lumborum and Psoas weight (P < 0.05), whereas A/A animals showed a higher intramuscular fat percentage and lower Warner–Bratzler shear force, drip loss, and polyunsaturated fatty acids content. Meat from B/B animals showed also a higher L* value and myoglobin and deoxymyoglobin percentage compared with meat from A/A ones (P < 0.05).