Assessment of Novel Sire Lines for Meat Quality Traits
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Research partner: University of Bristol
Sponsor: BPEX
Duration: 2007 - 2010
The aim of this project was to investigate whether there is a significant difference in meat eating quality as assessed by shear force, drip loss and pH, between progeny sired by different sire lines crossed with the same dam line.
All animals were reared on the same production unit using sows of the same genetics and parity. The effects of terminal sire genotype (H line, RN- Hampshire; E line, Large White x Pietrain; F line, Large White x Duroc; M line, Duroc x Pietrain) on meat quality characteristics of 91 pigs slaughtered at 104-107 kg liveweight was measured.
Of the four lines used for this study the RN- Hampshire line appears to meet the requirements of both the pig production industry and the retail industry the best. It had a higher daily liveweight gain than the other lines and produced meat that was significantly more tender than the other sire lines. This line also had a significantly higher moisture content whilst maintaining significantly higher levels of intramuscular fat which results in pork which is more acceptable to the consumer. There was no significant difference between lines for percentage drip loss or percentage chill loss.
As a result of this study we now have quantitative measures on meat eating quality of four commercial slaughter products.
Download the full report here
Page last updated
11 April 2011