Carcass and meat quality traits of Celta heavy pigs. Effect of the inclusion of chestnuts in the finishing diet

Abstract

Carcass and meat quality traits were studied in 36 Celta pigs (a breed native from NW of Spain) reared for 16 months in an extensive regime and slaughtered at a live weight of around 170 kg. The effect of partially or totally replacing commercial compound feed with chestnuts in the finishing diet was also investigated. Celta heavy pigs were characterised by high killing out, subcutaneous fat thickness, and ham length values, and by low ham perimeter, and Longissimus lumborum muscle area values. Meat showed high myoglobin contents and a* values, and very high hardness. By increasing the proportion of chestnuts in the finishing diet the quantity of back fat increased and the pH of the meat decreased. However, neither these effects, nor any of those on the other traits studied were statistically significant. The absence of significant effects may be due to the fact that pigs fed with chestnuts were not subjected to feed restrictions.

Effects of gender and diet on back fat and loin area ultrasound measurements during the growth and final stage of fattening in Iberian pigs

“…As expected, these values were higher than those reported for local or autochthonous breeds and improved breeds in previous studies (Minelli et al, 2013;Franco et al, 2014). The values were also higher than those reported for Celta pigs (38.0 ± 7.9 mm; a Spanish native breed adapted to the extensive production system) (Temperan et al, 2014). These results are not surprising since the Iberian is a local breed from the southwestern region of Spain with a distinct adipogenetic nature and shows a high subcutaneous adiposity, contributed to by their diet because as indicated by Cunningham et al (1973), pigs fed with a low-protein diet were fatter than pigs fed with a high-protein diet.…”

Effect of chestnuts level in the formulation of the commercial feed on carcass characteristics and meat quality of Celta pig breed

“…As a consequence, the combined proportion of primal cuts (ham, shoulder and loin) was higher for CH15 group (42.2 vs. 37.8 vs. 37.9% for CH15, C and CH25 groups, respectively). These findings are in disagreement with the data reported by Temperan et al (2014) who concluded that the use of chestnuts in the finishing diet did not modify significantly the trimmed cuts weight.…”

“…These findings are in agreement with the data reported by Pugliese et al (2007) and Temperan et al (2014), who did not observe significant differences in colour parameters between pig fed with concentrate and chestnuts. In opposite, Pugliese et al (2013) noticed an increase of the L*, a* and b* values in the longissimus lumborum muscle in pigs fattened with chestnuts during 1 or 3 months in comparison with pigs fattened without chestnuts.…”

“…This suggests that the use of chestnut in the diet does not affect carcass fatness or increase carcass quality without increasing the amount of fat, a fact that is sought in order to increase the lean/fat ratio. This finding is in agreement with data reported by Temperan et al (2014) who did not find significant differences in dorsal fat thickness between pigs fed only with chestnuts (3 kg of chestnut/animal/day) during the three months before slaughter and those given commercial concentrate.…”

“…4 (149 kg in CH15 group vs. 133 and 139 kg in C and CH25, respectively) and carcass weight (118 kg in CH15 group vs. 103 and 105 kg in C and CH25, respectively) were higher (p<0.01) in CH15 than in C and CH25 groups. This outcome is disagreement with those reported by Coutron-Gambotti et al (1998), Pugliese et al (2013) and Temperan et al (2014) who concluded that the use of chestnuts in the finishing diet did not modify significantly these values. Killing out percentage was better for chestnuts groups (CH15 and CH25) than for control group, but no influence was observed for dorsal fat thickness (4.75 vs. 5.25 vs. 4.55 cm for C, CH15 and CH25 groups, respectively).…”