pigs, says Roslin
Strive for leaner
Finishing leaner pigs, how
stocking density affects
output and future welfare
legislation were topics
discussed at JSRs technical
conference last week.
Simon Wragg reports
UK producers should continue to breed and finish leaner pigs with lower backfat – which has declined from 20mm to 11mm in 25 years – without fear of compromising meat quality, says Neil Cameron, researcher at Edinburghs Roslin Institute.
Dr Cameron suggests feed ingredients and regimes, such as ad-lib or restricted feeding – particularly in later life affects meat quality. "Selection for lean growth is not detrimental to eating quality, but more research is needed to identify optimum combinations of genetics and nutrition."
Speaking at JSRs technical conference at Sutton Bonnington, Notts, Dr Cameron added that taste panels had shown consumers found only small differences in meat tenderness and taste when asked to sample lean and fat pigmeat.
Chris Warkup, MLC meat science manager, added that the presence of intramuscular fat, often associated with quality meat cuts, has little effect on eating quality. "Fat is expensive to produce, nobody wants to eat it, so why produce it in the first place?" asked Dr Warkup.
To overcome any fall in meat eating quality from finishing leaner pigs, Dr Warkup suggested processing techniques could compensate, for example, maturing carcasses or specific cuts.
Researchers will continue to use marker selection to identify genes on a pigs genetic map which have a significant effect on leanness and tissue growth, explained Dr Cameron. "This could give a 10%-20% improvement in performance over natural selection," he added.
However, Dr Warkups view of the future was more radical, predicting an end of the multi-purpose pig and development of pigs reared for specific markets, for example ham production. "Dedicated finishing lines may increase production costs. This raises the question of what is to be done with finished pigs that do not meet required specifications."
pigs, says Roslin