Pig meat quality from entire males

Abstract

This paper constitutes an updated review of the production and meat quality aspects of rearing entire male pigs. Since a major obstacle in rearing entire males is the incidence of boar taint, possible methods for detection are also summarised. Safe and fast methods for detection of boar taint would be valuable in avoiding complaints from consumers. Pig meat quality is determined by many aspects, among which odour and taste are the most important attributes. Odour may be negatively affected by the presence of a pheromonal steroid, androstenone, and a fermentation product of L-tryptophan, skatole. Male pigs are surgically castrated in many countries to minimise the risk of accumulation of high levels of androstenone and skatole. Raising entire male pigs is more profitable because they have superior production characteristics and improved meat quality due to leaner carcasses and higher protein content, as compared to castrated pigs. Furthermore, surgical castration is negative from an animal welfare point of view. In most studies, no differences in sensory quality have been found between lean meat from entire male pigs with low levels of androstenone and skatole and pork from castrates and females. The question that remains is: which substances are responsible for boar taint besides androstenone and skatole and whether they need to be considered? The threshold values used for androstenone and skatole might also be too high for highly sensitive persons. Recent research shows that a human odorant receptor, ORD7D4, is involved in sensitivity to androstenone. If the ORD7D4 genotypes of consumer and expert panels are known, this might facilitate consumer studies in the future. There is still a great need for rapid on/at-line detection methods in abattoirs for identifying carcasses with unacceptable levels of boar taint compounds. Several emerging rapid technologies with a potential for boar taint detection have been investigated. They represent various measurement principles such as chemical sensor arrays (electronic noses), mass-spectrometry fingerprinting, ultra-fast gas chromatography, gas-phase spectrometry and biosensors. An industrial detection method should allow 100% correct classification of both acceptable and not-acceptable samples with regard to boar taint sorting criteria. There are, however, still too high a percentage of false negatives ranging from 5% to 20%. In addition, these methods do not yet seem to fulfil the industrial specifications with regard to cost efficiency, simplicity and analysis time. There is still no dedicated measurement technology available for on/at-line detection of boar-tainted carcasses that measures both androstenone and skatole.Keywords: pig meat quality, castration, entire males, detection methods, review ImplicationsBoar taint is the main reason that is preventing the production of entire male pigs in most countries. Across Europe, the majority of male piglets intended for pork production are surgically castrated to avoid potential consumer dissatisfaction because of boar tai...

Field experience with surgical castration with anaesthesia, analgesia, immunocastration and production of entire male pigs: performance, carcass traits and boar taint prevalence

“…A similar effect was observed with EM compared with SCM, although EM have consistently higher meat percentages and the effect of basal lean meat percentage is less pronounced. These observations are in line with the studies conducted by Lundstrom et al, (2009) and Bonneau (1998) who indicated that the advantage of lean meat growth when shifting towards EM pigs may have decreased because of selection for leaner pig breeds. None of the studies on the interaction between genotype and castration method on carcass quality published thus far showed any significant interactions (D'Souza and Mullan, 2003;Morales et al, 2011 and.…”

A performance test for boar taint compounds in live boars

“…Finishing intact boars can be an economically advantageous alternative to surgical castration (de Roest et al, 2009;Lundströ m et al, 2009). Because of the high heritability of boar taint compounds, breeding is an excellent tool to reduce the number of tainted carcasses.…”

Evaluation of various boar taint detection methods

“…Laboratory analysis can be used to reveal the concentration of skatole, indole and androstenone in fat. A variety of methodologies has been developed for this purpose, for example, methods based on HPLC, GC and LC-MS, as well as immunological and colorimetric methods (Zamaratskaia, 2004;Lundströ m et al, 2009;Haugen et al, 2012). Concentrations of skatole and androstenone are also, but less frequently, analysed in matrices other than fat, such as serum or plasma.…”

“…Both expert and consumer panels share several important characteristics, namely (1) variation in boar taint sensitivity between people, (2) the sensory properties of skatole and androstenone and (3) the effect of cooking temperature, cooking procedure, cultural habits and meat processing on boar taint perception (Lundströ m et al, 2009). Liking or disliking of androstenone odour was found to be even more important than androstenone sensitivity in consumers' acceptance (Furnols et al, 2003).…”