Meat and carcass quality of heavy muscled Belgian slaughter pigs as influenced by halothane sensitivity and breed

Abstract

In order to investigate the antagonism between meat quantity and quality, halothane-positive (HP) and -negative (HN) Belgian Landrace pigs (B) and Pietrain X Belgian Landrace crosses (PB) were compared for several carcass and meat quality traits. They originated from three commercial farms and were slaughtered in a commercial abattoir. Carcass quality was determined by a SKGlI-device. Meat quality traits were measured on the warm and cold carcass, and on a loin slice. HP and PB pigs showed better carcass quality, and inferior meat quality, compared with HN and B pigs respectively. No significant halothane sensitivity X breed interaction was apparent for most traits. Sex did not affect meat quality. Slaughter day variance was considerable. The inverse relationship between lean content or conformation score and meat quality was generally more pronounced in the HP group compared to the HN group (except for drip and cooking losses). Irrespective of halothane status, carcass conformational score was more negatively related to meat quality than was lean content.

Influence of the halothane gene (HAL) on pork quality in two commercial crossbreeds

“…At temperatures well below 50°C and pH levels below 5.6, a significant denaturation of metmyoglobin can occur in the meat, provoking a pale appearance (Zhu and Brewer, 2002 Culau et al (2002) observed that the average color of the pork was 2.41 (± 0.56), which is slightly paler than the normal score, which is equal to 3.0. They found that the pork chops of the heterozygote (HAL Nn ) and recessive (HAL nn ) swine were significantly paler than those of the homozygous dominant animals, similar to findings by Simpson et al (1987); Lunsdtröm et al (1989); Sather et al (1991); Russo et al (1994), and De Smet et al (1995).…”

Effect of halothane genotype, breed, feed withdrawal, and lairage on pork quality of belgian slaughter pigs.

“…There are now numerous studies showing the large and opposite differences in meat quantity and meat quality between stress-susceptible and stress-resistant pigs (Webb, 1981;Webb et al, 1985;Sellier, 1987). Likewise, De Smet et al (1995) reported on the inferior meat quality of halothane-positive B and PB compared with halothane-negative pigs. In their study, an inverse relationship between carcass and meat quality was apparent in both the halothanepositive and the halothane-negative group.…”

“…Pork quality is dependent on various genetic and environmental factors, and their possible interactions. In pig populations segregating at the halothane gene, the genotype of a particular animal has a major influence on various meat quality traits (Pommier and Houde, 1993;Casteels et al, 1995;De Smet et al, 1995). Breed differences in meat quality may be specific but are mainly associated with differences in the incidence of halothane susceptibility.…”

The Asp298Asn missense mutation in the porcine melanocortin-4 receptor (MC4R) gene can be used to affect growth and carcass traits without an effect on meat quality

“…Keeping meat quality at an acceptable level during selection for leanness has been a problem in the pig breeding industry. For instance, numerous studies have reported the positive effect of the halothane genotype on carcass lean content and conformation; however, this positive effect was often accompanied by a negative effect on meat quality traits (De Smet et al, 1995 andLeach et al, 1996). Also in other studies aiming at increasing lean tissue growth by selection or by feeding strategies, a decrease in meat quality was noticed (Karlsson et al, 1993;Oksbjerg et al, 2000).…”

“…the IGF-2 mutation in pigs affecting the percentage lean meat (Van Laere et al, 2003). However, improvement of performance traits may be associated with undesirable effects on meat quality, as has been clearly evidenced in the case of the RYR1 and the RN mutation (De Smet et al, 1995;Sellier, 1998;Hamilton et al, 2000). Therefore, the search for new gene-based selection tools aiming at improving -E-mail: Stefaan.DeSmet@UGent.be.…”