Pigs of two crosses: A (Duroc x Swedish Landrace) x Pietrain (n=24) and B (Swedish Landrace x Large White) x Pietrain (n=26) were used to investigate the effects of different lairage time (2 and 24 hours) on levels of stress and meat quality traits. No direct effect of lairage time on cortisol, lactate, electrolytes and meat quality parameters was observed. However, after long lairage time, pigs showed lower level of glucose and higher CK, AST and ALT activity. Crossbred B pigs exposed to short lairage time, showed higher blood lactate, sodium, and potassium level, higher drip loss and lower pHi, whereas there were no significant differences between the crossbreeds in the long lairage group. The results indicate that long lairage time decreases blood glucose level and produces signs of muscle damage. In the short lairage period, the crossbreed B showed a higher response to pre-slaughter handling affecting the meat quality

The purpose of our research was to determine which groups and species of internal parasites endanger the health of sheep on the islands of Rab and Pag. The research was carried out in 10 flocks on both islands taking the fresh dung out of 30% of the total number of sheep in each flock. It was ascertained that the gastrointestinal parasites and protozoa of Eimeria genus are present in most flocks on both islands. The presence of the fluke Dicrocoelium dendriticum was ascertained in considerably larger number of flocks on the island of Rab than on the island of Pag. On the other hand, the presence of parasites of Moniezia and Nematodirus genus was ascertained in larger number of flocks on the island of Pag. In two flocks on Rab parasites of Protostrongylus genus were ascertained while on the island of Pag they were not found in any flock.

Influence of raw ham weight, trimming form and pressing on seasoning weight loss of Istrian dry-cured hams were studied. Swine thighs were shaped traditionally with skin and subcutaneous fat removed. The pelvis bones were left in the ham (B hams) or experimentally deboned (boneless or BL hams). After trimming the raw hams were weighted and classified into the weight classes. The hams were pressed after dry salting with different loads. High seasoning weight loss (46.31 %) of Istrian hams was expected due to raw ham skinning. However, deboning had no influence on differences in seasoning weight loss. Significantly higher weight loss of light class hams suggest to use raw hams heavier than 10 kg and 9 kg after B and BL dressing, respectively. There was no significant press load effect on seasoning weight loss

POSTER AdditionAl keywords Body weight. Body length. Age at first farrowing. Litter size. Weaned piglets. sUMMAryThe Turopolje pig (TP) is an endangered Croatian autochthonous breed. This preliminary study aimed to determine the morphological and reproductive traits of TP breeding sows reared extensively in a traditional outdoor system. Body measurements were performed on a total of 40 sows, while reproductive data for 34 (out of 40) sows were collected from the available records in the TP breed Herdbook. The mean (±standard deviation) age and body weight of sows were 67.5±26.0 months and 96.6±18.4 kg, respectively. The mean height at withers and rumps were 65.2±2.8 cm and 68.4±2.9 cm, respectively, while the average chest girth was 111.2±10.4 cm. Average lengths of the body, head, ear and tail were 126.0±6.5 cm, 27.0±0.90 cm, 22.5±8.3 cm and 29.9±2.01 cm, respectively. The mean age at first farrowing was 23.3±5.7 months. The average number of piglets born alive was 4.47±1.96, of which 3.08±2.17 were weaned. It is concluded that the analysed population of TP breeding sows showed a typical morphology, with smaller body frame compared to modern breeds and generally low prolificacy. However, a high variability of reproductive traits indicates that improvements are possible, primarily through better management of sows.inforMAtion Cronología del artículo.Recibido/