Evaluation of the Chinese indigenous pig breed Dahe and crossbred Dawu for growth and carcass characteristics, organ weight, meat quality and intramuscular fatty acid and amino acid composition

Abstract

The objectives of the experiment were to evaluate growth and carcass characteristics, organ weight, meat quality and intramuscular fatty acid (FA) and amino acid composition between the Chinese indigenous pig breed Dahe and the crossbred Dawu. The Dahe pigs had lower average daily gain ( P , 0.001) and a higher feed conversion ratio ( P , 0.001) compared with the Dawu pigs. The Dahe pigs contained less lean meat percentage ( P , 0.001) and more carcass fat percentage ( P , 0.001) compared with the Dawu pigs. For organ weight, the Dahe pigs had lower relative heart weight and small intestine weight, respectively, compared with that of the Dawu pigs ( P , 0.001). In addition, the Dahe pigs showed higher pH values (at 45 min and 24 h, P , 0.001 and P , 0.001, respectively), higher Marbling score ( P , 0.05), lower Minolta L values (at 45 min and 24 h, P , 0.001 and P , 0.05, respectively) and lower muscle fiber area ( P , 0.05) than did the Dawu pigs. C18:1, C16:0, C18:0 and C18:2 were the main FAs and nine essential amino acids were found in the Longissimus dorsi of the two breeds.Keywords: growth and carcass characteristics, meat quality, organ weight, fatty acid composition, amino acid composition ImplicationsThe Dahe pig is a Chinese indigenous pig breed and the Dawu pig is a crossbred using the Duroc 3 Dahe breeding scheme through five generations of selection. This is the first study to evaluate growth and carcass characteristics, organ weight, meat quality, and intramuscular fatty acid and amino acid composition of the two breeds. The results showed that the Dahe pigs retained good meat but poor growth and carcass composition, whereas the Dawu pigs not only retained good meat quality as did the Dahe pigs but also had good growth performance and carcass composition. These results indicated that the two breeds could be used in commercial pig production in China to provide high taste quality niche products.

Carcass and meat quality traits of four commercial pig crossbreeds in China

“…The reason for higher pH in the three crossbreeds may be that the Chinese native breed and Duroc have higher pH levels. Indeed, similar results have been previously reported (Oliver et al, 1994;Latorre et al, 2003a;Jiang et al, 2011. Interestingly, pH 1 and pH 2 of PIC were very low at only 5.82 and 5.63, respectively.…”

“…However, because of the selection for high lean meat content, the average IMF content of pigs has decreased below this level. The Chinese pig had high IMF contents, which could increase IMF content in crossbreeds (Jiang et al, 2011. Meat from DLY and DLM had high intramuscular fat levels, a result similar to those of other studies (BartonGade, 1987;Edwards et al, 1992;Oliver et al, 1994;Latorre et al, 2003a) percentage of fat of Duroc compared to other lean breeds.…”

“…The present results corroborate those of previous reports (Lan et al, 1993;Young, 1992Young, , 1998Cesar et al, 2010), which found that Chinese pigs had no effect on meat color. However, some studies have shown that Chinese pig meat tended to be darker than that of foreign breeds (Yong, 1995;Miao et al, 2009;Jiang et al, 2011. According to the meat color standards of NPPC (2000), a color score of 3 -5 or Minolta L value of 37-49 is considered to be good.…”

Analysis of carcass and meat quality traits and nutritional values of hybrid wild boars under different crossing systems

“…All of the eight essential amino acids (EAAs) were found in the two hybrid wild boars, with leucine, methionine, and lysine showing the highest content. These results were in good agreement with the results of other reports (Okrouhlá et al, 2006;Jiang et al, 2011). Although no significant differences were found for the total EAAs between the two groups (P > 0.05), the content of histidine, an EEA for children (or semi-EAA), was significantly higher in black hybrid boars (P < 0.05).…”

“…In this study, C18:1, C16:0, C18:0, and C18:2 were the main FAs; meanwhile, monounsaturated fatty acid and saturated fatty acid were by far the most abundant components (>85%) in the longissimus dorsi. These results were in good agreement with the results of other reports (Martin et al, 2008;Jiang et al, 2011). As to the different hybrid groups, the longissimus dorsi of black hybrid wild boars had more unsaturated fatty acid (UFC) than that of white hybrid wild boars, especially C18:2 and C20:2 (P < 0.05).…”