The effects of cross, slaughter weight and halothane genotype on leanness and meat and fat quality in pig carcasses

Abstract

Carcass and meat quality traits were studied in 94 barrows of known HAL-1843 genotype (homozygote - - and heterozygote - +) from three crosses slaughtered at 90 kg and 120 kg live weight. Crosses A and B were produced from sires of which 0·5 of the genes were from a heavy-muscled × Large White line and 0·5 from pure Pietrain (A) or Duroc (B). Sows for both A and B were from a hyperprolific Large White × Landrace line and this latter line produced the pigs for cross C (control). The carcasses from cross A which were sired from boars having 0·75 of their genotype from heavy-muscled genetic lines had higher killing-out proportion, better conformation scores, greater loin depth and loin area, less carcass length and bone content, and greater lean proportion compared with cross C. The carcasses from cross B, with roughly 0·25 of Duroc genes had a significantly higher backfat thickness than either cross A or C. However their composition was not significantly different from C, since the higher backfat was counter-balanced by their better conformation. Carcass and lean weight distribution was more favourable in crosses A and B, which had significantly higher economic yields than cross C. The halothane genotype did not have a significant effect on fatness and carcass composition, although the heterozygote showed a significantly greater muscle depth. In addition, no significant effect of the halothane gene on carcass and lean weight distribution was observed. In relation to the light group of carcasses (72·8 (s.e. 4·4) kg), the heavy group (100·1 (s.e. 2·7) kg) had greater killing-out proportion, better conformation, longer carcasses, higher fatness and greater loin depth and area. These genetic lines showed a 9·6 g/kg increase in fat and a 6·1 g/kg decrease in lean for every 10 kg of increasing slaughter weight. With the slaughter weight increase the longissimus dorsi muscle became less pale due to a higher muscle pigment concentration, and the backfat had a higher proportion of oleic and lower proportion of linoleic and palmitic fatty acids. The halothane genotype had a significant effect on meat quality. The heterozygote produced much paler, softer and more exudative meat. However, the effect of cross and carcass weight was not significant for meat quality measurements determining pale, soft and exudative meat.

Productive performance, carcass and meat quality of intact and castrated gilts slaughtered at 106 or 122 kg BW

“…In this experiment, meat redness (a*) increased and meat lightness (L*) and hue angle (H8) decreased as SW increased from 106 to 122 kg BW in accordance with most studies that report that meat becomes darker and redder (Latorre et al, 2004;Corino et al, 2009) and had more myoglobin content (García-Macías et al, 1996) as the pig ages. Meat from pigs slaughtered at heavier weight had more IMF and less moisture content than meat from pigs slaughtered at lighter weight in accordance with data of Candek-Potokar et al (1998b), Weatherup et al (1998) and (Corino et al, 2009).…”

Effect of sire breed on carcass characteristics and meat and fat quality of heavy pigs reared outdoor and intended for dry-cured meat production

“…Most authors have not detected any effect of breed on meat colour as measured by visual scores (Ellis et al, 1996), objective parameters (L*, a* and b*; Nieuwhof et al, 1991) or myoglobin content (García-Macías et al, 1996). However, loins from DU crossbreed had more lightness but were paler than those from PI crossbreed, in agreement with Latorre et al (2003a) who found higher a* values in loin from PI 3 LW than in that from DU-sired pigs.…”

“…Traditionally, PI pigs have shown consistently higher ham yield than DU pigs (Oliver et al, 1993). However, García-Macías et al (1996) observed that the proportion of lean cuts was similar between both breeds and Latorre et al (2003a and2003b) found that lean cut yield was higher for DU than for PI 3 LW offspring. Our results indicate that DU boars had a higher percentage of trimmed lean cuts than PI boars, and the difference was mostly due to the greater proportion of hams and shoulders.…”

Effect of age, sex and slaughter weight on productive performance, carcass characteristics and meat quality of crossbred (Hampshire x Assam local) pigs

“…Weatherup et al (1998) observed that pork colour as measured by objective parameters was independent of slaughter weight. Garcia-Macias et al (1996), however, reported that increasing the body weight of the pigs to 133 kg caused higher myoglobin deposition with consequent redder meat. Age and slaughter weight had significant effect on texture property of pork L. dorsi, however, sex did not have any effect.…”

“…Leach et al (1996), however, observed more intramuscular lipid in muscles of barrows than gilts. Garcia-Macias et al (1996) reported that chemical composition of L. dorsi muscle was not affected by slaughter weight. the fat of the back region excluding the skin was measured at 1 st rib, last rib and last lumbar vertebrae.…”