Abstract presented at the 2001 Annual Meeting, American Society of Animal Science, Indianapolis, IN J. Anim. Sci 79 (Suppl. 1): 696 (Abstr).

 

Evaluation of Duroc vs. Pietrain Sired Progeny for Meat Quality

 

D. B. Edwards, R. O. Bates, and W. N. Osburn

 

Department of Animal Science

Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI

 

Novel swine populations may contribute beneficial genes to U.S. swine production systems.  Crossbred progeny sired by either Duroc or ryanodine receptor gene normal Pietrain were used in this study.  Boars from each breed were mated to Yorkshire or F1 Yorkshire-Landrace females.  A total of 162 offspring were evaluated for meat quality.  Measurements were taken on animals representative of each litter.  Data were analyzed using an animal model with fixed effects of breed of sire, breed of dam, gender, slaughter group, the interaction of breed of sire and gender, random effect of animal.  An additional term of pig was included in the model to fit the within pig variation from sample to sample.  Shear force measurements had six samples per pig, while other meat quality measures had two samples per pig.  Meat quality measures were not different or favored Duroc sired progeny.  Duroc progeny had better subjective meat quality scores (1-5 scale) for color (2.540 vs. 2.354, P < 0.05), marbling (2.425 vs. 1.739, P < 0.001), and firmness (2.615 vs. 2.295, P < 0.001).  Furthermore Duroc progeny had higher 24-h pH (5.526 vs. 5.468, P < 0.001) and less percent drip loss (2.892 vs. 3.893, P < 0.001).  No differences were detected between Duroc and Pietrain sired progeny for Minolta L^* (54.764 vs. 55.307), a^* (17.348 vs. 17.272), or b^* (7.581 vs. 7.441) objective color scores, percent cooking loss (28.629 vs. 29.187), or Warner-Bratzler shear force (6.942 vs. 7.095 kg).  Both Duroc and Pietrain populations merit further study into the genetic control of these meat quality traits.

 

Keywords: pig, meat quality, breeds